I 


BIOGRAPHY 

or 

LF-T AUGHT  MEN 

WITH  AN 

INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 

Per  augiuta  aa  augutta. 


BOSTON: 
E.  TILTON  AND  COMPANY, 

161  WASHINGTON  STREET 
1  859. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introductory  Essay,   5 

Roger  Sherman,   63 

Christian  Gottlob  Heyne,  (of  Gottingen,)   76 

William  Whipple,  •••••   83 

Alexander  Murray,   86 

Stephen  Hopkins,  100 

Professor  Lee,  104 

William  Gilford,  110 

Thomas  Baldwin,  121 

David  Rittenhouse,  131 

Samuel  Huntington,  

William  Edwards,    151 

Thomas  Seott,  158 

Lott  Cary,  179 

John  Opie,  191 

Nathaniel  Smith,  20: 

John  Godfrey  Von  Herder,  20f, 

Giovanni  Battista  Belzoni,  210 

William  Caxton,  216 

Richard  Baxter,  22i> 

Arthur  Young,  237 

Charles  G.  Haires,  244 

Carsten  Niebuhr,  250 

Jonas  Rmg,  273 

Humphrey  Davy,  •  •  •  •  290 

Adam  Clarke,  so£  ^ 

Count  Rumford,  (Benjamin  Thompson,)  317  ^ 


f 


If -A 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


The  future  history  of  the  United  States  is  a 
subject  of  deep  interest.  We  are  come  to  a  very 
important  period  in  our  course.  The  strength 
of  our  political  system  is  beginning  to  be  tried. 
The  tendencies  of  our  institutions  are  becoming 
apparent.  The  elements  which  form  a  general 
national  character,  are  combining  and  coalescing. 
It  is  emphatically  a  day  of  trial.  Every  thing  is 
subjected  to  a  rigid  scrutiny.  Merely  prescriptive 
rights  are  abandoned.  Reliance  upon  authority 
is  given  up.  Such  being  the  condition  of  the 
country,  it  is  not  an  inappropriate  question,  What 
is  to  be  done?  There  are  local  divisions,  civil 
strifes,  rival  religious  denominations,  great  ques- 
tions pending  in  political  economy,  interesting 
relations  with  other  portions  of  the  world,  and 
boundless  resources  for  good  or  evil.  What  then 
are  the  duties  which  devolve  on  the  American 
eitizen  ? 

i* 


6 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


It  is  very  obvious,  in  the  first  place,  that  in  the 
passion  for  novelty  and  change,  we  are  to  see  that 
we  do  not  give  up  any  thing  which  is  truly  valu- 
able. We  ought  to  remain  firm  on  those  great 
principles  of  politics  and  education,  morals  and 
religion,  which  have  been  tried,  and  have  not 
been  found  wanting.  There  is  little  danger  in 
this  country  of  a  too  pertinacious  attachment  to 
old  systems.  The  hazard  is  all  on  the  other  side. 
The  love  of  innovation  is  vastly  an  overmatch  for 
a  blind  regard  to  authority  and  antiquity.  In 
detaching  ourselves  from  what  is  absurd  and  er- 
roneous in  former  opinions,  we  shall,  without  great 
circumspection,  abandon  the  true  with  the  false, 
and  shall  soon  find  ourselves  on  an  unknown  sea, 
without  any  experience  from  the  past,  or  guide 
for  the  future.  As  an  instance  in  point,  I  might 
allude  to  the  excessive  simplification  in  books  of 
education,  relieving  the  student  from  the  necessity 
of  patient  attention,  and  of  thorough  and  discrimi- 
nating habits  of  thought. 

Another  duty  of  great  importance  is,  to  induce 
a  more  fervent  and  general  cooperation  of  the 
advocates  of  sound  principles,  in  the  diffusion  of 
their  opinions.  There  is  little  concentrated  sym- 
pathy and  fellow-feeling  among  the  friends  of  man. 
They  have  not  learned  the  power  of  associated 
effort.    They  do  not  act  in  masses.    This  trait  in 


• 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


7 


our  character  is  principally  owing  to  two  reasons. 
We  have  no  capital  city.  We  have  no  acknowl- 
edged metropolis  of  letters  or  influence.  There 
is  no  London,  to  which  all  the  provincial  towns 
willingly  bow  in  homage.  The  tendency  of  our 
republican  institutions  is  such,  also,  as  to  prevent 
an  embodied  and  powerful  action  of  the  friends  of 
virtue.  Our  freedom  of  thought  and  indepen- 
dence of  character  we  sometimes  carry  to  an 
extreme.  We  are  better  as  private  citizens  than 
as  members  of  a  commonwealth.  It  is  not  true 
that  the  state  of  public  morals  and  virtue  is  as 
elevated  as  that  of  the  individuals  who  compose  a 
community.  We  do  that  in  a  collective  capacity, 
which  we  should  not  dare  to  do  as  friends  or 
neighbors.  Conscience,  and  the  faith  of  solemn 
compact,  are  often  voted  away,  when  personal 
honor,  or  a  mere  verbal  engagement,  are  sacredly 
remembered  and  redeemed.  When  a  great  prin- 
ciple is  at  stake,  wre  must  learn  to  dismiss  all 
minor  differences,  to  forget  all  local  attachments, 
to  abjure  utterly  every  selfish  consideration. 
What  is  a  party,  what  is  a  religious  denomination, 
when  a  fundamental  law  of  right  or  justice  is  at 
issue  ? 

Intimately  connected  with  the  preceding  remark, 
is  the  undoubted  truth,  that  questions  of  political 
economy  are  to  be  viewed  far  more  than  they 


8 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


have  been  in  this  country,  in  connection  with  the 
operations  of  the  providence  of  God.  What 
volumes  of  ingenious  speculation  have  been 
wasted  in  this  captivating  science,  simply  because 
the  authors  did  not,  or  would  not,  look  at  the  ar- 
rangements of  the  Power  that  ruleth  over  all. 
It  is  not  pretended  but  that  there  are  great  and 
intrinsic  difficulties  in  shaping  a  system  of  com- 
mercial intercourse,  among  the  different  parts  of 
this  country,  and  between  the  United  States  and 
foreign  nations.  Still  it  may  be  safely  asserted, 
that  one  half  of  the  vexation  and  trouble  which 
have  been  experienced,  would  have  been  avoided, 
if  our  legislators  were  all  Christian  economists. 
The  Author  of  nature,  and  of  nations,  did  not 
leave  the  great  subjects  of  internal  or  inter- 
national commerce  in  such  profound  doubt  and 
mystery  as  is  now  thrown  around  them.  He  has 
made  all  the  parts  of  a  country  mutually  depend- 
ent upon  each  other,  on  purpose  to  counteract  the 
selfishness  of  men.  To  promote  the  prosperity 
of  one  division  of  the  United  States,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  happiness  of  any  other  portion,  is 
adopting  certain  means  to  ruin  the  whole.  The 
unnatural  growth  of  one  empire  is  as  certainly 
destructive  to  itself  as  it  is  to  that  land  from 
which  it  has  subtracted  its  wealth.  Men  cannot 
be  politicians,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  with- 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


9 


out  adopting  the  principles  of  the  Bible.  The 
book  of  Proverbs,  and  the  sermon  on  the  Mount, 
contain  the  elements  of  the  best  political  economy 
which  was  ever  devised.  They  inculcate  what  is 
of  immeasurable  importance  in  the  intercourse  of 
nations  —  enlargement  of  mind,  and  comprehen- 
siveness of  view,  and  clearness  and  power  of 
conscience.  These  would  settle  questions  of  for- 
eign intercouse  and  domestic  improvement,  with 
far  more  certainty  and  safety  than  the  volumes 
of  Adam  Smith,  or  the  statistics  of  Seybert  or 
Pitkin.  Here,  then,  is  a  great  duty  to  be  per- 
formed. Those  same  elevated  and  Christian 
principles  are  to  be  carried  into  all  the  duties  of 
the  statesman,  which  have  been  so  happily  intro- 
duced into  some  of  the  departments  of  criminal 
jurisprudence  and  penitentiary  discipline. 

It  is  very  evident,  moreover,  that  great  efforts 
are  required  to  maintain  the  due  ascendency  of 
mind  over  matter.  The  accumulation  of  wealth 
is  the  object  which  absorbs  the  attention  of  all 
classes  of  our  community.  Almost  the  entire 
population  of  the  country  are  earnestly  engaged 
in  the  development  and  employment  of  the 
physical  resources  of  the  nation.  There  is  a 
boundless  selfishness  —  a  restless  and  unappeasa- 
ble desire  to  amass  riches.  This  is  the  general 
theme  of  conversation  in  the  public  stage-coach ; 


10 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


it  is  the  reiterated  topic  of  recommendation  in 
official  documents  ;  it  is  the  foundation  of  irrita- 
ting comparisons  between  different  portions  of  the 
country ;  it  causes  the  desecration  of  the  ever  to 
be  hallowed  Sabbath ;  it  stimulates  the  waking 
hours  and  animates  the  dreams  of  the  private 
citizen.  Mammon  is  the  god  of  this  country. 
The  attainment  of  wealth  is  pursued,  not  as  a 
means,  but  as  an  end.  Our  government  does  not 
employ  the  abundant  resources  of  the  nation,  in 
extending  the  boundaries  of  science  and  of  civil- 
ization, but  rather  in  the  purchase  of  more  land. 
Individuals,  as  a  general  thing,  do  not  amass 
wealth  for  the  sake  of  becoming  Maecenases,  or 
Thorntons,  or  Boudinots,  but  for  some  personal 
and  selfish  consideration.  Now  this  insatiate 
worldliness  ought  to  be  counteracted.  A  power- 
ful weight  should  be  thrown  into  the  opposite 
scale.  Our  country  is  ruined  if  it  becomes  too 
prosperous.  Wealth,  with  all  its  concomitants 
and  adjuncts,  will  not  save  us.  Rocky  coasts  and 
rough  fields,  with  virtuous  hearts,  are  a  richer 
inheritance  than  the  golden  mines  of  both  hemi- 
spheres. It  is  the  extension  of  the  empire  of 
mind  which  we  need.  It  is  the  cultivation  of  the 
domestic  graces  and  accomplishments.  It  is  in- 
tellectual and  moral  glory,  after  which  we  must 
aspire.    We  must  attain  the  enviable  honor  of 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


11 


being  an  intellectual  and  religious  nation.  In 
renouncing  the  crowns  and  coronets,  the  pomps 
and  vanities,  of  the  old  world,  let  us  not  devote 
ourselves  to  that  which  is  infinitely  more  sordid. 

This  leads  me  to  remark,  that  we  are  called  to 
the  work  of  educating  an  innumerable  multitude 
of  minds.  Popular  instruction,  in  its  most  com- 
prehensive import,  is  to  be  the  theme  of  absorb- 
ing interest.  Connected  with  this  subject,  are 
questions  of  very  wide  application,  which  have 
been  hardly  considered  yet.  We  are  to  provide 
means  for  extending  the  benefits  of  education  to 
the  extremities  of  society,  to  a  scattered  and  ever 
emigrating  population.  We  are  to  devise  the  best 
methods  for  combining  legislative  supervision 
and  patronage,  with  private  munificence.  The 
philosophy  of  education  is  to  be  studied  and  taught 
as  a  practical  science.  Books,  in  all  the  depart- 
ments of  education,  are  to  be  written  by  those 
who  are  intimately  acquainted  with  the  laws  of 
the  human  mind.  In  short,  a  vast  population  are 
not  only  to  have  instruction  communicated  to 
them,  but  are  to  be  inured  to  habits  of  self-educa- 
tion, and  to  be  intrusted  with  the  power  of  elevat- 
ing themselves  indefinitely  in  the  scale  of  im- 
provement. 

Once  more,  a  national  Christian  literature  is  to 
be  created  in  this  country.    There  is  a  period,  or 


12 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


there  are  periods,  in  the  history  of  every  nation 
when  the  great  currents  of  thought  receive  their 
direction,  when  the  organs  of  intellectual  life 
begin  to  move.  Of  what  immense  benefit  had  it 
been  to  England  in  all  subsequent  ages,  if  her 
Elizabethan  era  had  been  a  Christian  era ;  if  the 
great  men  who  then  toiled  in  the  fields  of  knowl- 
edge, had  all  been  Boyles  and  Miltons.  How 
different  would  have  been  the  destiny  of  France, 
if  her  literary  men  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV., 
had  all  been  Pascals  and  Fenelons ;  if  that  gor- 
geous constellation  of  intellect  had  been  temper- 
ed with  the  mild  beams  of  Christianity.  How 
bright  would  have  been  the  pages  of  her  now 
blood-stained  history!  The  great  lesson  which 
these  facts  teach  us,  is  to  seize  the  favorable  mo- 
ment —  to  preoccupy  the  ground.  Our  state  of 
probation,  in  this  respect,  is  not  past.  With  a 
few  exceptions,  we  have  now  no  literature.  "We 
have  nothing  which  can  be  called  a  National 
Literature.  It  is  yet  to  be  created.  Those  great 
controlling  influences,  which  lift  themselves  into 
the  upper  firmament  of  thought,  which  are  like 
the  polar  light,  always  visible,  and  always  to  be  re- 
garded, are  yet  to  be  collected  together.  Though 
there  are  scattered  rays  of  light  every  where, 
yet  they  have  not  been  concentrated  into  reigning 
and  radiant  orbs.    The  fourth  day  is  not  come. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


13 


A  great  object,  therefore,  an  ultimate  object,  to 
be  kept  in  view  in  this  country,  now  and  forever, 
is  the  highest  possible  cultivation  of  science  and 
literature  in  connection  with  religion.  It  is  an 
object  vast  enough  for  the  concentration  of  every 
energy,  physical,  and  mental,  and  moral,  which 
God  has  given  to  us.  Here  may  be  exhibited  a 
vigor  of  intellect,  a  purity  of  taste,  a  strength  and 
fervor  of  religious  feeling,  all  in  delightful  com- 
bination, such  as  the  old  world  has  never  yet  seen. 
Now  is  the  time.  We  have  separation  enough 
from  the  other  continents.  We  have  ample 
sphere.  We  have  no  need  to  engrave  our  dis- 
coveries on  columns  of  stone,  to  be  wearily  deci- 
phered by  some  subsequent  age.  We  may 
spread  them  out  before  a  great  people.  We  may 
write  them  on  ten  thousand  living  and  breathing 
hearts. 

Another  very  important  object  is,  to  turn  to  the 
best  account  the  triumphs  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, which  so  mark  the  years  that  are  now  pass- 
ing over  us  in  this  country.  These  exhibitions  of 
the  grace  and  power  of  the  Redeeming  Saviour, 
may  be  attended  with  vast  collateral  benefits,  if 
they  are  regarded  with  that  importance  which 
they  deserve.  When  the  powers  of  the  world  to 
come  are  visible,  when  there  is  an  awakened  and 
tender  conscience  and  clearness  of  perception, 
2 


14 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


when  men  feel  deeply  that  they  are  spiritual  and 
immortal  beings,  then  is  a  most  favorable  time  to 
make  sure  of  other  great  interests.  The  moral 
sense  may  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  whole  circle 
of  duties.  Liberality  of  feeling  and  comprehen- 
siveness of  mind  may  be  successfully  inculcated. 
The  individuals  in  question,  may  learn  to  look  on 
themselves  as  the  subjects  of  a  new  and  glorious 
economy,  where  they  can  breathe  a  fresher  air, 
and  obtain  occasional  glimpses  of  the  higher 
abodes,  where  dwell  their  elder  and  more  favored 
brethren.  The  simple  personal  safety  of  an  indi- 
vidual, is  not  the  only  or  the  great  object  in  view, 
in  these  days  of  the  Redeemer's  victories.  Why 
should  not  the  sphere  of  human  sympathy  be  en- 
larged ?  Why  should  not  fresh  charms  be  thrown 
over  the  whole  aspect  of  human  society  ?  Why 
should  not  the  genial  influence  pervade  all  the 
intercourse  of  men  ?  Why  should  not  revivals 
of  Christianity  exert  a  strong  influence  on  the 
purity  of  civil  elections,  on  the  sacredness  of 
judicial  proceedings,  on  the  contracts  of  com- 
merce, and  on  the  durability  of  a  republican 
government?  The  genuineness  of  that  religion 
may  well  be  questioned,  which  does  not  moderate 
the  heat  of  party  zeal,  which  does  not  diffuse 
itself  into  all  the  departments  of  civil  life,  —  in 
short,  which  does  not  make  men  real  philanthro- 
pists, pure  and  incorruptible  patriots. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


15 


But  in  order  to  fulfil  these  great  trusts,  and  to 
accomplish  these  high  purposes,  we  must  bring 
some  new  powers  into  the  field.  A  hitherto 
unknown  agency  must  be  employed.  All  the 
ordinary  and  accustomed  means  of  changing 
public  opinion,  are  not  sufficient.  We  have  not 
men  enough,  of  the  proper  description,  in  this 
country.  A  new  order  of  cultivated  intellect  is 
greatly  needed.  A  limited  number  of  eminent 
scholars,  such  as  Alexandria,  and  Athens,  and 
London  in  the  days  of  Anne,  contained,  is  not 
demanded.  A  multitude  of  learned  men  in  the 
abstract  sciences,  such  as  Paris  and  some  of  the 
German  cities  embrace,  would  not  accomplish 
the  work.  Neither  would  the  parish  schools  and 
universities  of  Scotland  supply  the  deficiency. 
They  nurture  metaphysical  acumen,  and  strength 
of  reasoning,  indeed,  but  frequently  at  the  ex- 
pense of  benevolent  feeling  and  religious  princi- 
ple. Neither  are  the  excellent  common  school 
systems  of  the  northern  States  of  this  country, 
however  great  the  blessings  which  they  diffuse, 
equal  to  the  enterprise  to  be  accomplished. 

A  class  of  men  which  will  be  fully  adequate  to 
the  exigency,  may  be  found  in  great  numbers  in 
this  country.  They  compose  the  young  men  who 
have  vigor  of  body,  great  strength  and  firmness  of 
character,  an  ardent  desire  to  acquire  knowledge, 
a  disposition  to  employ  their  powers  in  the  diffusion 


1G 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


of  knowledge,  with  little  or  no  pecuniary  resources. 
They  constitute  a  portion  of  the  members  of  our 
colleges.  Probably  from  fifty  to  seventy-five 
thousand  of  this  class  of  young  men,  are  pursuing, 
with  various  interest,  the  study  of  the  sciences 
and  of  literature,  at  the  lyceums,  which  are  hap- 
pily extending  into  all  parts  of  the  country. 
Several  thousand  more  are  engaged  in  a  course 
of  study  which  is  habitually  connected  with 
manual  labor.  A  still  smaller  class,  but  amount- 
ing to  nearly  two  thousand,  are  under  the  patron- 
age of  various  societies  for  the  promotion  of 
ministerial  education.  So  that  in  all  the  classes 
enumerated,  there  are,  doubtless,  at  least  one  hun- 
dred thousand  young  men  in  the  United  States, 
who  are  in  a  course  of  self-education. 

In  this  description  of  young  men,  there  are 
materials  of  great  value,  which  may  be  fashioned 
and  moulded  for  important  public  service.  No 
other  nation  on  earth  is  possessed  of  such  a 
treasure.  This  country  is  comparatively  new. 
There  is  not,  as  in  Europe,  a  multitude  of  large 
estates,  which  can  furnish  abundant  means  of 
education  to  the  sons  of  a  family.  The  popula- 
tion, in  many  parts  of  the  land,  is  migatory  also. 
Of  course,  the  ancient  seats  of  learning  are  left 
behind.  Opportunities  for  a  finished  education 
cannot  be  obtained  for  many  years  after  the  first 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


17 


settlement  of  a  country.  Besides,  the  population 
increases  with  such  rapidity,  that  all  the  ordinary 
means  for  providing  facilities  for  thorough  mental 
discipline,  are  entirely  inadequate.  Such  being 
the  condition  of  things  in  this  country,  it  follows 
almost  of  consequence,  that  there  will  be  a  class 
of  men  such  as  I  have  described,  —  of  firm  nerve, 
of  aspiring  hope,  of  powerful  understanding,  but 
not  in  possession  of  the  means  of  pursuing  an 
uninterrupted  course  of  mental  improvement.  If 
they  have  the  benefit  of  teachers,  it  is  only  at  in- 
tervals. If  taught  at  all,  they  must  in  a  great 
measure  teach  themselves.  They  are  compelled 
to  rely  on  their  own  resources.  That  this  class 
of  young  men  is  large,  and  capable  of  conferring 
great  benefits  on  the  country,  no  one  can  doubt. 

They  possess  some  peculiar  advantages  over  all 
other  classes  of  men.  They  have  confidence  in 
their  own  power,  Whatever  of  character  they 
possess  has  been  tried  in  the  school  of  severe  dis- 
cipline. They  have  breasted  the  billows,  in  a  great 
measure,  alone.  Others  have  had  their  doubts 
resolved  by  teachers.  In  the  final  resort,  they 
have  depended  on  foreign  and  auxiliary  aid. 
Their  own  powers  have  been  tasked  for  a  while, 
but  the  last  weight  has  been  lifted  up  by  the 
shoulders  of  others.  A  clearer  eye  has  penetrat- 
ed the  dark  cloud  for  them.  It  is  sometimes  the 
2* 


18 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


fact,  that  an  individual  who  has  been  taught  by- 
others,  has  more  confidence  in  the  opinion  of  every 
one  else,  than  in  his  own.  As  a  direct  conse- 
quence, he  is  wavering,  timid,  pliable.  His  char- 
acter is  not  compacted  and  assimilated,  but  yield- 
ing and  capricious-.  His  usefulness  is  of  course 
greatly  diminished.  But  the  men  of  whom  I 
speak,  have  measured  their  powers.  They  have 
depended  very  little  on  extraneous  aid. 

Another  attribute  of  this  class  of  individuals,  is 
independence  of  purpose.  They  are  accustomed 
to  form  opinions  according  to  the  decisions  of 
their  own  judgments.  They  are  like  that  de- 
scription of  lawyers,  who  have  deeply  studied  the 
elementary  principles  of  their  profession,  who 
have  followed  out  these  principles  into  all  their 
ramifications,  and  who  come  to  conclusions,  which 
are,  in  a  great  measure,  irrespective  of  particular 
facts  —  facts  which  may  coincide,  or  may  not, 
with  an  original  principle.  Such  lawyers  are  in- 
dependent, in  a  great  degree,  of  precedents,  or  of 
the  opinion  of  courts.  By  severe  thought  and 
well-directed  study,  they  have  formed  an  inde- 
pendent habit  of  judgment.  Such  is  the  fact 
with  those  individuals  who  have  been  self- 
instructers.  They  may  err  in  opinion,  and  their 
purposes  may  be  formed  on  insufficient  grounds ; 
but  they  are  not  accustomed  to  bow  to  human 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


19 


authority,  nor  yield  their  free  agency  at  the  call 
of  party  or  sect. 

Many  of  this  class  have,  moreover,  an  invinci- 
ble perseverance.  The  resoluteness  with  which 
they  resolve,  has  a  counterpart  in  the  untiring 
execution  of  their  schemes.  Difficulties  only 
excite  a  more  ardent  desire  to  overcome  them. 
Defeat  awakens  new  courage.  Affliction  nour- 
ishes hope.  Disappointment  is  the  parent  and 
precursor  of  success.  A  resolution  so  strong  is 
sometimes  formed,  that  it  seems  to  enter  into  the 
nature  of  the  soul  itself.  It  swallows  up  the 
whole  man,  and  produces  a  firmness  of  determina- 
tion, an  iron  obstinacy  of  pursuit,  which  nothing 
but  death  can  break  down. 

I  have  seen  an  individual  commence  a  course 
of  preparatory  studies  for  a  liberal  education- 
Weakness  of  sight  compelled  him  to  suspend  his 
labors.  After  a  season  of  relaxation,  he  resumed 
his  books,  but  the  recurrence  of  the  same  disorder 
induced  him  to  abandon  the  pursuit.  He  then 
assumed  the  duties  of  a  merchant's  clerk ;  but  the 
same  inexorable  necessity  followed  him.  He 
entered  into  the  engagements  of  a  third  profes- 
sion, with  as  little  success  as  before.  But  he  was 
not  discouraged.  An  unconquerable  determina- 
tion took  possession  of  his  soul,  that,  come  what 
would,  he  would  not  despair.    In  the  merciful 


20 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


providence  of  that  Being  who  "  helps  those  who 
help  themselves,"  he  was  directed  to  the  manu- 
facturing of  a  certain  article  which  was  new  in 
that  part  of  the  United  States,  and  his  labors 
were  rewarded  with  entire  success.  In  a  few 
years,  he  became  one  of  the  most  affluent  indi- 
viduals in  his  vicinity. 

The  following  facts  in  relation  to  a  gentleman, 
who  is  now  a  distinguished  professor  in  one  of 
the  American  colleges,  will  aiFord  an  excellent 
illustration  for  my  purpose.  The  father  of  the 
individual  alluded  to,  was  a  poor  but  intelligent 
man,  gave  his  children  a  good  common  education, 
and  also  to  some  extent  the  privileges  of  an 
academy,  which  was  situated  in  his  native  town. 
The  occupation  of  the  son  was  that  of  husbandry, 
especially  during  the  summer  months,  being  em- 
ployed by  some  neighboring  farmer,  as  his  father 
did  not  own  a  farm.  Early  in  life  he  acquired  a 
taste  for  mathematics,  and  never  afterwards  did 
he  advance  so  rapidly  in  geometry  and  the  kind- 
red studies,  in  the  same  number  of  hours'  appli- 
cation to  them,  as  in  the  evening  after  ten  or 
twelve  hours  of  hard  labor  in  the  field.  Having 
obtained  permission  to  see  some  of  the  astronomi- 
cal instruments  belonging  to  the  academy,  he 
became  particularly  attached  to  practical  astrono- 
my, though  he  could  gain  access  only  to  elementary 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


21 


books.  Having  made  an  observation  upon  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun,  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
the  longitude  of  the  place,  he  commenced  the 
work  of  resolving  the  problem  with  only  the  gen- 
eral directions  and  tables  in  the  common  books  of 
navigation ;  and  although  it  cost  him  several 
months  of  severe  stud)',  he  succeeded  in  obtaining 
a  correct  result,  except  the  errors  of  the  lunar 
tables.  He  did  not  engage  in  the  study  of  Latin 
and  Greek,  until  after  he  had  been  interested 
several  years  in  mathematics,  and  then,  mainly 
because  he  found  that  he  could  not  otherwise  be- 
come a  teacher.  While  occupied  in  these  studies, 
he  supported  himself  in  part  by  occasionally  sur- 
veying land,  and  in  part  by  undertaking  the  busi- 
ness of  a  carpenter,  having  discovered  that  this 
art  depended  on  a  few  simple  mathematical  prin- 
ciples easily  applied.  The  object  which  he  now 
had  in  view,  was  to  prepare  himself  to  enter  Har- 
vard college  two  or  three  years  in  advance.  He 
was  for  the  most  part  his  own  instructor.  The 
minister  of  the  parish  rendered  him  some  assist- 
ance ;  but  the  whole  amount  of  his  recitations  in 
Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  French,  philosophy, 
chemistry  and  natural  history,  during  the  whole 
course  of  his  life  thus  far,  has  not  been  greater 
than  the  recitations  in  college  for  six  months. 
Having  looked  forward  with  much  pleasure  to  the 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAT. 


privileges  of  a  college,  and  having  been  nearly 
prepared  to  enter  a  junior  class,  a  sudden  termin- 
ation was  put  to  his  literary  efforts,  by  the  failure 
of  his  eyes,  in  consequence  of  applying  too  close- 
ly to  the  study  of  the  Greek  language,  during  a 
feeble  state  of  health.  For  the  following  year, 
he  was  compelled  to  abandon  reading  and  study 
almost  wholly ;  and  from  that  time  to  the  present, 
— a  period  of  sixteen  years,  —  he  has  rarely  been 
able  to  read  steadily,  for  one  hour,  without  expe- 
riencing much  and  often  severe  pain  in  his  eyes, 
sometimes  threatening  apoplexy.  This  affliction, 
though  highly  beneficial  in  its  moral  influence, 
was  apparently  fatal  to  all  his  literary  plans ; 
yet  he  could  not  quite  abandon  them.  In  order 
to  obtain  a  subsistence,  he  soon  after  accepted  the 
office  of  a  deputy  or  assistant  to  the  sheriff  of  the 
county.  Feeling  confident  that  he  must  entirely 
renounce  the  idea  of  obtaining  a  subsistence  by 
literary  efforts,  and  seeing  nothing  before  him  but 
a  life  of  servile  labor,  he  was  induced  to  write  and 
publish  a  dramatic  performance  of  considerable 
length,  with  the  hope  that  it  would  excite  some  in- 
terest in  hif  favor,  wherever  his  lot  might  fall. 
The  composition,  though  bearing  the  marks  of 
inexperience,  contains  some  passages  of  true 
poetic  feeling,  expressed  in  powerful  language. 
Soon  after  this  event,  he  was  very  unexpectedly 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


23 


invited  to  teach  the  academy  in  his  native  village. 
To  acquit  himself  in  this  new  sphere  of  duty,  he 
made  great  efforts.  He  now  gave  particular  at- 
tention to  classical  literature.  Finding  that  his 
health  had  suffered  severely  from  previous  efforts, 
and  from  the  consequences  of  the  dreadful  des- 
pondency through  which  he  had  passed,  he  was 
compelled  to  abandon  mathematical  and  astro- 
nomical studies,  though  it  was  a  most  painful 
sacrifice.  Providence,  however,  furnished  a  de- 
lightful substitute.  Natural  history  then  first 
attracted  his  attention,  and  he  soon  found  that  he 
could  pursue  this  study,  without  injury  to  his 
eyes,  and  with  benefit  to  his  health,  in  the  inter- 
vals of  severer  engagements.  These  pursuits 
introduced  him  to  the  acquaintance  of  a  number 
of  distinguished  gentlemen,  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  who  rendered  him  very  valuable 
assistance.  About  this  time,  the  honorary  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts  was  conferred  on  him  by  Yale 
college.  The  only  pecuniary  aid  which  he  ever 
received,  during  the  course  of  his  education,  was 
ten  or  twelve  dollars.  Notwithstanding,  when  he 
entered  on  his  professional  duties,  he  had  obtained 
a  respectable  library,  and  was  free  from  debt. 
He  is  now  in  a  station  of  great  usefulness,  and 
has  accomplished  several  undertakings,  which 
have  conferred  lasting  benefits  on  the  country. 


24 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


In  the  two  words,  industry  and  perseverance, 
is  contained  the  secret  of  these  results.  With 
whatever  original  powers  the  Creator  may  have 
endowed  him,  they  would  have  availed  him  noth- 
ing, without  an  unbending  resolution,  and  severe 
and  unremitted  application.  His  history  affords  a 
remarkable  instance  of  the  energy  of  a  self-taught 
man.  Those  events,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
which  would  have  presented  insurmountable  ob- 
stacles to  other  individuals,  were  only  an  excite- 
ment to  him  to  urge,  with  fresh  impulse,  his 
onward  course. 

Another  characteristic  of  self-taught  men,  is, 
that  they  commonly  devote  themselves  to  some 
important  practical  object.  They  do  not  waste 
their  power  in  pursuing  trifles.  They  do  not 
generally  engage  in  the  departments  of  criticism 
and  metaphysics,  which  are  rewarded  with  little 
practical  result.  It  is  those  who  have  ample 
means  of  subsistence  and  support,  who  are  be- 
guiled into  merely  speculative  regions,  or  who 
devote  themselves  to  undertakings  of  moderate  or 
of  doubtful  utility.  The  case  is  different  with 
those  who  are  dependent  on  their  own  efforts  for 
everything.  The  first  direction  of  their  minds 
is  not  so  much  to  the  sciences  as  to  the  arts.  Car- 
pentry in  various  forms,  surveying  of  land,  the 
manufacture  of  machinery,  the  construction  of 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


25 


hydraulic  engines,  originally  offering  themselves 
to  their  notice,  gave  a  shape  to  their  whole  subse- 
quent life.  It  is  to  be  attributed  to  this  fact, 
doubtless,  that  self-taught  men  are  distinguished 
for  invention  in  the  arts.  Their  necessities  have 
given  a  readiness  to  their  minds,  enabling  them 
to  seize  on  those  combinations  of  thought,  from 
which  discoveries  of  great  importance  have  some- 
times followed.  They  have  also  that  power  of 
patient  application,  which  is  alike  important  to 
discovery.  Causes,  however,  exist,  in  this  des- 
cription of  men,  unfavorable  to  the  development 
of  new  truths  in  the  abstract  sciences. 

Self-taught  men  have  also  the  faculty  of  clear- 
ly communicating  their  knowledge  to  others.  In 
this  respect,  they  make  excellent  teachers.  They 
have  worked  their  own  way  up  the  steeps  of 
knowledge,  and  they  can  point  out  the  path  in 
which  they  came.  Their  attention  was  not  absorb- 
ed by  the  movements  of  their  guide,  for  they  had 
none.  The  various  objects  which  they  met,  they 
clearly  marked  and  defined.  Whatever  were  the 
general  principles  which  they  adopted,  they  were 
not  taken  upon  trust,  but  were  well  considered. 
These  individuals  may  not  be  able  to  explain  their 
progress  logically,  or  scientifically,  but  they  can 
do  it  intelligently,  and  to  good  purpose.  They 
have,  also,  in  a  striking  degree,  the  ability  to  em- 
3 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


ploy  familiar  illustrations.  For  the  sake  of  throw- 
ing light  upon  their  course,  they  have  not  search- 
ed for  the  images  of  poetry,  nor  listened  to  the 
personifications  of  the  orator;  they  have  collected 
the  apposite  and  graphic  illustrations  and  facts, 
which  common  people  can  apprehend  and  relish, 
and  which  are  gathered  from  the  rocks  and  the 
fields,  and  from  all  the  incidents  of  ordinary  life. 
Arthur  Young,  the  self  taught  English  agricul- 
turist, was  distinguished  as  an  instructer,  insomuch 
that  La  Fayette,  and  the  Russian  prince  Galitzin, 
and  the  Russian  emperor  himself,  intrusted  lads  to 
his  guidance  and  care.  No  treatise  on  astronomy 
has  ever  been  so  popular,  and  deservedly  too, 
among  all  descriptions  of  learners,  as  that  of 
James  Ferguson,  who  discovered  some  of  the 
principles  of  mechanics  before  he  knew  that  any 
treatises  had  been  written  on  the  subject.  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  was,  perhaps,  the  most  popular 
lecturer  who  ever  addressed  a  British  audience. 
This  was  owing  not  more  to  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
character,  and  his  perfect  knowledge  of  his  sub- 
ject, than  to  the  clearness  of  his  expositions,  and 
the  transparency  and  beauty  of  his  illustrations. 

There  are,  notwithstanding  these  various  excel- 
lences, several  acknowledged  deficiencies  of  char- 
acter. There  are  blemishes,  both  of  an  intellec- 
tual and  moral  kind,  which  are  almost  inseparable 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


27 


from  a  plan  of  self-education,  and  which  are 
worthy  of  distinct  consideration. 

One  of  the  most  manifest  defects  is,  want  of 
comprehensiveness  of  mind.  The  special  advan- 
tage of  a  teacher  is,  to  point  out  the  connections 
among  the  different  arts  and  sciences,  their  relative 
importance,  the  natural  order  of  studying  them, 
and  the  evils  of  a  disproportionate  attention  to 
any  one  of  them.  The  general  directions  of  a 
judicious  teacher  are  invaluable.  They  are  like 
a  drawing  of  the  heavens  to  direct  the  course  of 
the  youthful  observer  among  the  millions  of  stars. 
But  a  student,  without  the  instructions  of  an 
experienced  guide,  will  be  liable  to  seize  at  once 
upon  the  parts  of  a  subject,  or  upon  the  middle  of 
a  treatise,  without  ever  having  surveyed  his 
ground,  or  marked  its  general  bearings.  He  will 
thus  expend  his  labor  at  unimportant  points,  or  in 
a  disproportionate  degree.  There  will  be  little 
symmetry  and  scientific  method  in  his  studies. 
His  labors  will  resemble  those  of  a  mechanic,  who 
should  place  a  well-finished  door  or  window  in  the 
side  of  an  old  and  dilapidated  dwelling.  He  has 
an  accurate  acquaintance  with  one  branch  of  a 
subject,  while  all  around  it  is  in  disorder  and  de- 
formity. And  here  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
he  will  gain  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  a 
specific  topic,  in  consequence  of  giving  an  exclu- 


28 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


sive  attention  to  it ;  and  that  this  will  atone  for  the 
loss  of  a  general  acquaintance  with  the  subject. 
The  study  of  Webber's  trigonometry  will  furnish 
as  much  discipline  for  the  mind,  if  the  student, 
before  he  commences  his  investigation,  knows  the 
general  relations  of  the  mathematical  sciences,  as 
if  he  had  no  such  general  knowledge.  A  greater 
amount  of  mental  discipline  can  be  acquired,  by 
studying  the  sciences  in  their  natural,  scientific 
order,  than  by  attending  to  them  exclusively  and 
at  random.  A  self-taught  man  is  frequently  at- 
tached, with  a  kind  of  favoritism,  to  a  particular 
study.  It  absorbs  his  whole  attention,  and  all 
other  arts  or  sciences  are  .proportionably  under- 
valued and  slighted.  The  distinguished  painter, 
Hogarth,  affected  to  despise  literature,  and  indeed 
every  species  of  mental  cultivation,  except  the 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  painting ;  and  he  even 
professed  himself  to  have  little  or  no  acquaint- 
ance with  anything  else.  The  celebrated,  self- 
taught  anatomist,  Dr.  John  Hunter,  was  almost 
entirely  ignorant  of  all  learning,  even  with  that 
connected  with  his  own  profession.  It  has  been 
asserted,  that  it  not  unfrequently  happened,  that 
upon  communicating  a  supposed  discovery  of  his 
own  to  some  one  of  his  own  more  erudite  friends, 
he  had  the  mortification  to  learn  that  the  same  thing 
had  already  been  discovered  by  some  other  well- 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


20 


known  anatomist  Michael  Angelo  could  scarce- 
ly spell  his  name  correctly.  Benjamin  West,  the 
president  of  the  Royal  Academy  for  almost  thirty 
years,  never  attained  to  a  style  of  ordinary  cor- 
rectness in  his  orthography.  The  disadvantages 
of  the  want  of  an  early  education,  can  never,  in- 
deed, be  entirely  overcome.  There  will  always 
be  lingering  traces  of  the  deficiency.  It  is  like 
the  acquisition  of  the  pronunciation  of  a  foreign 
language  at  a  late  period  in  life.  The  nice  pecu- 
liarities and  shades  of  sound,  cannot,  by  any 
effort,  be  acquired- 
Self-taught  men  are  specialty  liable  to  an  ex- 
clusive attachment  to  pursuits  which  are  obviously 
and  immediately  practical.  There  seems  to  be  a 
general  impression,  that  poetry,  and  the  kindred 
branches  of  literature,  furnish  little  else  but 
amusement,  and  if  read  at  all,  can  afford  materi- 
als for  recreation  only  in  the  intervals  of  imperi- 
ous duty.  The  tendency  to  judge  in  this  manner 
can  be  accounted  for,  without  any  difficulty,  from 
the  circumstances  in  which  self-educated  men  are 
placed,  but  the  effects  are  very  pernicious.  Poe- 
try, in  its  best  sense,  is  altogether  a  practical 
study.  Its  influence  upon  the  whole  mind  of  a 
reader,  is,  in  the  highest  degree,  favorable.  As 
history  is  said  to  be  philosophy  teaching  by  ex- 
ample, so  poetry  is  philosophy  teaching  by  music 
3* 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


It  is  good  sense,  pouring  itself  out  in  sweet  sounds. 
It  is  powerful  thought,  uttering  itself  in  the  voices 
of  angels.  A  true  poet  is  a  philosopher.  Milton, 
and  Wordsworth,  and  Coleridge,  understand  the 
phenomena  of  the  human  mind,  as  well  as  Male- 
branche,  or  Reid,  or  Brown.  They  have  the 
same  capacities  of  wide  generalization,  and 
accurate  analysis,  and  faithful  exposition.  To 
read  such  poets,  is  as  directly  conducive  to  useful- 
ness, as  it  is  to  read  the  ablest  metaphysical 
treatise.  We  cannot  avoid  regretting  that  a  man 
like  Dr.  Franklin,  was  not  conversant  with  the 
best  poets.  It  would  have  been  no  injury  to  his 
usefulness  as  a  profound  observer  of  human  man- 
ners. Common  sense  and  the  loftiest  imagination 
are  perfectly  coincident.  The  same  man  may 
condense  his  ideas  into  epigrams  and  proverbs,  or 
pour  them  out  in  strains  of  the  most  vigorous  and 
harmonious  versification.  It  is  recorded  of  him 
who  "  spake  three  thousand  proverbs,  that  his 
songs  were  a  thousand  and  five."  He  that  was 
wiser  than  all  the  children  of  men,  who  so  con- 
densed and  embodied  his  thoughts  as  to  make 
nearly  every  word  instinct  with  sentiment,  could 
delightfully  sing,  "  the  winter  is  past,  the  rain  is 
over  and  gone,  the  flowers  appear  on  the  earth, 
the  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come,  and  the 
voice  of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  the  land."  If 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


31 


Benjamin  West  had  read  Chaucer,  and  Spenser, 
and  Milton,  it  would  not  have  subtracted  in  the 
least  from  his  enthusiasm  for  his  favorite  art, 
while,  in  a  thousand  ways,  it  would  have  aided 
his  power  of  conceiving  and  of  delineating  on  the 
canvass,  the  varieties  of  human  character.  It 
would  also  have  relieved  the  "  American ?'  presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Academy,  of  the  charge  of 
being  an  illiterate  man.  John  Opie,  and  Professor 
Heyne,  and  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  showed  their 
good  sense  in  nothing  more  than  by  an  earnest  at- 
tention to  various  branches  of  literature  and 
science.  It  is  not  pretended  that  every  man  ought 
to  attempt  to  become  a  universal  scholar ;  but  that 
the  highest  excellence  in  any  one  pursuit,  is  incon- 
sistent with  entire  ignorance  of  science  and  liter- 
ature generally.  Self  educated  men  are  pecu- 
liarly exposed  to  danger  from  this  quarter;  and 
instead  of  banishing  works  of  taste  and  imagina- 
tion from  the  farm-house,  and  the  lyceum,  and  the 
manual-labor  school,  they  are  the  very  productions 
which  ought  to  meet  with  a  welcome  reception. 
It  has  been  said,  that  very  few,  if  any,  discoveries 
in  the  abstract  sciences,  have  ever  been  made 
by  men  who  have  instructed  themselves  ;  that  the 
general  advancement  of  knowledge  is  almost  en- 
tirely to  be  ascribed  to  men  who  have  received  a 
regular  education.    The  labors  of  Franklin,  Rit- 


32  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 

tenhouse,  and  others,  may  furnish  some  exceptions 
to  this  remark.  Nevertheless,  it  is  generally 
true,  that  prior  to  a  particular  discovery,  an  indi- 
vidual must  take  a  wide,  general  survey  of  the 
fields  of  knowledge,  else  he  may  fondly  imagine 
that  he  has  elicited  some  new  truth,  which  may 
at  length  appear  to  have  been  long  before  discov- 
ered and  classified.  Original  conception  and  in- 
ventive genius,  are  in  perfect  harmony  with 
extensive  acquisitions.  He,  who  would  advance 
in  any  department  of  knowledge,  must  know  what 
others  have  done  before  him.  In  stead  of  decry- 
ing the  models  of  taste  and  genius  of  other  ages 
and  countries,  it  is  the  wisdom  of  every  man  to 
study  them  patiently  and  thoroughly.  This  is  not 
a  degrading  subjection  to  other  minds,  which  will 
cramp  or  annihilate  genius.  If  ever  there  was 
an  original  author,  it  was  John  Milton  —  he  who 
"  chose  early  and  began  late."  But  who  does  not 
know  that  Paradise  Lost  is  the  spoils  of  all  times 
and  of  all  countries  ?  If  ever  there  was  a  univer- 
sal plunderer,  if  ever  there  was  a  boundless 
plagiary,  it  was  this  same  John  Milton.  He 
searched  the  Jewish  records,  and  the  Christian 
economy.  He  opened  the  Talmud,  and  he  peru- 
sed the  Koran.  He  reveled  in  the  fields  of 
Achaia,  and  on  the  hill-sides  of  Judea.  He  lis- 
tened to  the  sweet  music  under  Italian  skies,  and ' 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


33 


to  the  awful  prophecies  of  the  Druids.  He  drank 
alike  of  the  Eurotas,  and  of  that  "  stream  which 
flows  fast  by  the  oracle  of  God." 

Another  evil  to  which  men  of  this  class  are 
liable  is,  what  may  be  expressed  by  the  term 
rigidness  of  character.  They  sometimes  acquire 
a  fierceness  of  independence,  an  extreme  hardi- 
hood of  spirit,  which  nearly  destroys  their  social 
sympathies,  and  greatly  subtracts  from  their  use- 
fulness. They  were  themselves  nursed  in  winds 
and  storms.  They  trampled  the  most  formidable 
difficulties  under  their  feet,  and  smote  into  the 
dust  every  enemy  which  rose  up  against  them. 
Some  of  them  seemed  to  triumph  over  physical 
impossibilities,  and  to  make  the  loss  of  one  faculty 
or  sense,  the  stimulus  to  push  their  remaining 
powers  to  the  ultimate  limit  of  perfection.  Hence 
they  infer  that  this  same  fortitude  and  fearlessness 
belongs,  or  should  belong,  to  every  other  human 
being.  Finding  a  deficiency  of  these  stern  quali- 
ties, they  consider  it  as  an  offence  almost  unpar- 
donable. They  do  not  have  compassion  on  the 
erring  and  ignorant.  They  do  not  make  suffi- 
cient allowance  for  human  infirmity.  They  do 
not  recollect,  perhaps,  those  favorable  conjunctures 
in  the  providence  of  God,  of  which  they  took  ad- 
vantage, and  which  may  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  others. 
Those,  who  have  amassed  large  estates,  by  vigor- 


34 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


ous  personal  effort,  are  sometimes  disposed  to 
carry  habits  of  economy  to  absolute  avarice. 
Misers  are  frequently  found  among  this  class  of 
men.  "What  is  won  with  hardship  is  held  with  a 
tenacious  grasp.  Fortunes  thus  acquired  will  not 
be  dissipated,  at  least  till  the  second  generation  ; 
a  generation  which  knows  not  the  habits  of  their 
fathers.  An  individual,  who  has  become  affluent 
by  his  own  exertions,  may  acquire  habits  of  gen- 
uine philanthrophy,  and  in  that  case,  is  entitled 
to  greater  commendation,  in  consequence  of  the 
difficulties  which  he  has  overcome ;  still  there  is 
ground  to  apprehend  that  his  charities  will  be 
confined  to  one  or  two  favorite  channels,  and  that, 
in  the  multiplicity  of  the  smaller  incidents  and 
occasions  of  life,  he  will  be  far  from  exhibiting 
genuine  greatness  of  soul,  or  real  philanthropy  of 
feeling.  From  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  he 
will  be  disposed  to  ascribe  an  undue  importance 
to  the  various  contrivances  and  systems,  which  are 
intended  to  enable  an  individual,  without  pecuni- 
ary resources,  to  rise,  by  personal  exertion,  to 
spheres  of  usefulness  and  honor. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  deficiency  of 
character  just  described,  is  the  habit  of  over- 
estimating personal  or  other  attainments.  Self- 
confidence  is  frequently  carried  too  far.  A  great 
change  in  external  circumstances,  is  always  at- 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


35 


tended  with  imminent  danger  in  the  subject  of  it. 
Elevate  a  servant  to  a  throne,  impart  at  once 
large  literary  treasures  to  an  ignorant  and  obscure 
individual,  fill  the  house  of  the  poor  man  with 
wealth;  and  you  take  a  most  effectual  way  to 
imbue  him  with  the  spirit  of  arrogance  and 
vanity.  Julius  Caesar  Scaliger,  the  great  critic, 
was  a  self-taught  man,  but  guilty  of  the  most  ex- 
cessive affectation  and  pride.  He  was  contented 
to  be  called  Bordoni,  and  the  son  of  a  miniature 
painter,  till  he  was  nearly  fifty  years  old.  He 
then  composed  an  elaborate  memoir  of  his  own 
life,  in  which  he  pretended  that  he  was  the  last 
surviving  descendant  of  a  princely  house  of  Ve- 
rona. Bandinelli,  an  Italian  sculptor,  the  son  of 
a  goldsmith,  and  a  grandson  of  a  common  coal- 
man, having,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  acquired 
great  wealth,  and  having  been  created  a  knight 
by  Charles  V.,  is  said  to  have  repeatedly  changed 
his  name,  in  order  to  hide  his  parentage ;  and  to 
have  fixed  at  last  upon  that  by  which  he  is  gener- 
ally known,  in  order  that  he  might  appear  to  have 
sprung  from  a  noble  family.  A  similar  anxiety  to 
secure  to  himself  the  reputation  of  a  name,  was 
manifested  by  the  great  Spanish  dramatist,  Lopez 
de  Vega. 

One  of  the  especial  benefits  of  a  regular  edu- 
cation, is  to  wear  away  or  cut  off  these  excres- 


36 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


cences  of  character.  It  is  exceedingly  difficult  for 
an  individual  to  retain  in  quiet  possession,  within 
the  walls  of  a  college,  a  great  amount  of  self- 
conceit  or  vanity.  He  comes  into  contact  with 
rough  corners.  He  is  speedily  in  collision  with 
flint.  Powerful  minds  will  meet  in  fierce  compe- 
tition, and  sad  will  be  his  lot  who  brings  into 
debate  an  unusual  share  of  self-importance.  Col- 
lege is  a  great  leveler.  Hence  it  is,  that  in  the 
last  sessions  of  a  collegiate  course,  the  real  ad- 
vance can  be  measured  by  contrasting  the  accom- 
panying modesty  and  docility,  with  the  opposite 
qualities,  which  are  frequently  visible  at  the  earlier 
periods.  At  college,  an  individual  will  be  com- 
pelled to  learn  what  his  real  talents  and  attain- 
ments are.  There  is  scarcely  the  possibility  of 
deceiving  several  keen-eyed  equals.  There  is  very 
rarely  an  undue  degree  of  sympathy  or  compassion 
in  a  classmate.  But  in  the  case  of  an  individual 
who  has  educated  himself,  there  is  no  class  of  men 
anywhere  in  his  neighborhood,  with  which  he  can 
compare  himself.  He  grows  up  alone.  An  innate 
vigor  is  the  sap  which  nourishes  him.  All  the  in- 
dividuals of  his  acquaintance  are,  perhaps,  clearly 
his  inferiors.  At  the  same  time,  his  injudicious 
relatives  may  administer  large  draughts  of  flattery 
to  his  lips,  till  he  becomes  exceedingly  wise  in  his 
own  sight,  and  the  wonder  of  the  age  which  has 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAT. 


37 


produced  him.  As  correctives  of  this  very  ob- 
vious evil,  our  public  institutions  are  admirably 
adapted,  and  are,  in  fact,  indispensable. 

To  the  numerous  class  of  young  men,  in  the 
United  States,  who  are  mainly  dependent  on  their 
own  resources  for  knowledge,  or  respectability, 
one  of  the  most  important  counsels  of  wisdom, 
which  can  be  addressed,  is,  study  your  own 

CHARACTER  AND    PROSPECTS.     If  VOU  are  JUSt 

emerging  from  obscurity,  and  breathing  the  fresh 
air  of  an  emancipated  mind,  and  thirsting  for  im- 
provement, and  occasionally  catching  some  gleams 
of  light  from  that  undiscovered  land  of  promise 
which  lies  in  the  distant  horizon  ;  let  not  your 
fancy,  nor  your  excited  feelings,  lead  you  captive. 
Be  calm  and  considerate.  A  wrong  step  now  may 
blast  your  hopes  forever.  An  imperfect  estimate 
of  the  deficiencies  of  your  character,  may  impede 
your  course  through  your  whole  subsequent  life. 
Be  willing  to  know  all  the  wrong  habits  which 
you  have  cherished,  and  all  the  weaknesses  of 
your  mind.  Study  your  excellences  also,  so  that 
you  may  not  cultivate  them  disproportionately, 
nor  yield  to  the  influence  of  depression  or  despair, 
when  you  are  tempted  to  place  too  low  an  estimate 
on  your  powers  or  acquirements.  Be  solicitous 
especially  to  understand  what  your  physical  con- 
4 


38  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 

stitution  is,  so  that  you  may  make  it  subservient, 
from  the  beginning,  to  the  most  perfect  action  of 
mind  and  heart,  so  that  all  your  capacities,  intel- 
lectual and  moral,  may  be  safely,  and  to  the  high- 
est degree,  developed.  If  there  is  an  individual  of 
your  acquaintance,  who  knows  your  past  history, 
and  your  mind,  and  who  has  gone  through  the 
course  which  you  are  commencing,  let  it  be  your 
object  to  gain  from  him  a  faithful  analysis  of  your 
character,  and  an  accurate  chart  of  that  path,  of 
alternate  storm  and  sunshine,  which  lies  before 
you.  If  possible,  find  an  experienced  friend,  who 
has  an  enlarged  mind  and  a  liberal  heart,  and 
who  has  no  exclusive  and  favorite  study  or  system 
of  his  own.  The  counsels  of  such  a  guide  will 
be  inestimable.  Next  to  the  blessing  of  the  Al- 
mighty, they  will  ensure  success.  When  all  this 
is  done,  form  a  calm  and  deliberate  determination 
that  you  will  take  that  path,  come  what  may, 
which  will  secure  your  highest  happiness  and  use- 
fulness. Nourish  that  inflexible,  that  iron  deter- 
mination in  your  heart,  without  which  nothing 
will  be  achieved. 

In  the  second  place,  you  will  have  occasion  to 
guard  against  underrating  knowledge.  Learning, 
if  it  be  thoroughly  apprehended  and  digested,  can- 
not be  too  highly  esteemed.  Mere  acquisition  of 
facts,  indeed,  without  analysis  and  reflection,  is 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


39 


positively  injurious  to  the  mind.  Reading,  un- 
attended with  contemplation,  will  produce  habits 
of  affectation  and  pedantry.  Nevertheless,  those, 
who  are  most  exposed  in  this  respect,  are  men  of 
literary  leisure,  or  scholars  by  profession.  You 
are  liable  to  fall  into  the  opposite  error.  Com- 
pelled by  your  circumstances  to  think,  relying  on 
the  native  resources  of  your  own  mind,  you  will 
learn  to  look  disparagingly  on  the  scholar  of  com- 
prehensive and  ample  attainment.  But  extensive 
acquisitions  are  perfectly  consistent  with  profound 
original  investigation.  Reading  the  thoughts  of 
others,  will  often  awaken  interesting  and  valuable 
trains  of  reflection.  An  active  mind  will  assimi- 
late, or  correct,  or  transform  the  views  of  the 
author  whom  he  is  reading.  The  very  ability  to 
peruse  certain  books,  implies  that  the  reader  him- 
self has  powers  of  reflection  and  arrangement. 

Again,  want  of  immediate  success  at  the  com- 
mencement of  your  studies,  will,  without  great 
care,  weaken  your  resolution,  and  interrupt  your 
efforts.  You  have,  perhaps,  come  from  the  toils 
of  a  shop  or  farm,  to  the  hall  of  science,  and  to 
the  pursuits  of  the  scholar.  Habits  of  close  in- 
vestigation cannot  be  acquired  in  a  day.  A  wan- 
dering mind  cannot  be  fixed  without  painful  effort. 
Associations  acquired  in  pursuits  alien  from 
science  and  taste,  cannot  be  changed  at  the  mere 


40 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


bidding  of  the  will.  Those  lands  of  beauty  and 
joy,  winch  shall  at  length  open  to  your  view,  are 
at  the  commencement  of  your  course,  shrouded  in 
impenetrable  clouds.  Algebra  and  Plato  are  in- 
vested with  their  full  charms  only  to  the  practised 
eye,  and  to  the  disciplined  intellect.  You  need  to 
fortify  your  mind  with  the  strong  convictions  of 
duty.  Hearkening  invariably  to  the  decisions  of 
an  enlightened  conscience,  and  the  dictates  of 
sound  reason,  you  will  at  length  find  that  the  path 
of  enlarged  thought,  and  of  cultivated  feeling,  and 
of  refined  taste,  is  the  path  of  pleasure. 

You  will  be  under  the  necessity,  moreover,  of 
rendering  all  your  efforts  at  manual  labor,  and  in 
procuring  a  supply  for  your  physical  wants,  sub- 
servient to  a  certain  purpose  —  advancement  in 
mental  and  moral  power.  They  must  be  means, 
not  an  end.  If  you  are  preparing  for  either  of 
the  learned  professions,  or  to  influence  public 
influence  in  any  way,  you  must  make  all  things 
subordinate  to  your  purpose.  It  is  not  your  object 
to  become  an  ingenious  mechanic,  an  efficient 
merchant,  or  a  practical  farmer.  Some  individu- 
als, who  are  in  a  course  of  education,  take  more 
pleasure  in  the  shop  or  on  the  farm,  than  in  the 
study,  and  are  more  solicitous  to  be  accounted 
skilful  workmen  than  powerful  scholars.  It  is  the 
grand  design,  or  it  ought  to  be,  of  all  manual-labor 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  41 

academies,  to  promote  mental  and  moral  improve- 
ment. The  connection  between  the  system  of 
bodily  exercise,  in  all  its  details,  and  literary  pro- 
gress, should  be  manifest  and  prominent.  The 
high  cultivation  and  valuable  products  of  a  farm, 
or  a  garden,  should  not  be  the  boast  of  these  in- 
stitutions. They  are  but  minor  and  secondary 
matters.  It  is  the  bearing  of  these  things  on  the 
development  of  the  mind,  and  of  the  heart,  which 
should  arrest  the  attention  and  be  rewarded  with 
the  encouragement  of  every  observer.  If  this 
object  be  overlooked,  or  manifestly  neglected, 
manual-labor  schools  will  be  an  utter  failure,  and 
there  will  be  a  universal  return  to  the  old  sys- 
tems of  mere  literary  study,  without  any  attention 
to  the  physical  wants.  These  schools,  to  be  suc- 
cessful, must  furnish  better  scholars  than  any 
others  —  men  of  more  vigorous  understanding, 
and  of  more  mental  discipline.  Bodies  of  perfect 
symmetry,  and  of  gigantic  muscular  strength,  are 
worthless  in  themselves  alone.  This  is  a  subject 
of  great  practical  importance.  If  these  institutions 
fail  on  any  one  point,  it  will  be  on  this ;  and  for 
a  very  obvious  reason.  It  is  important  to  direct 
public  attention  prominently  to  the  physical  part 
of  the  arrangements,  or  that  wherein  the  institu- 
tion differs  from  those  conducted  on  the  former 
plan,  in  order  to  secure  &  sufficient  amount  of 
4* 


42 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


public  patronage.  Consequently,  the  principal 
interest  of  the  community  will  be  concentrated 
upon  that  which  is  obviously  of  secondary  impor- 
tance. Besides,  every  individual  who  engages  in 
physical  exercise  of  any  kind,  must  feel  a  consid- 
erable degree  of  attachment  to  this  exercise,  if  he 
designs  to  derive  from  it  material  benefit.  This 
attachment,  by  a  very  common  law  of  the  human 
mind,  may  increase  and  become  the  master  passion 
of  his  soul. 

In  regard  to  such  individuals,  in  the  class  of 
self-taught  men,  who  devote  their  attention  to  any 
of  the  mechanic  arts,  or  to  either  of  the  depart- 
ments in  common  life  and  business,  though  their 
particular  pursuit  is  to  engross  their  chief  atten- 
tion, yet  it  is  of  great  importance  that  they  become 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  principles  of  their 
trade,  and  with  the  reasons  of  the  rules  according 
to  which  they  daily  practise.  They  should  throw 
as  much  mind  as  possible  into  all  which  they  un- 
dertake. The  perfection  of  machinery,  and  the 
excellence  of  soils,  are  not  the  only  objects  of  in- 
quiry. The  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  phi- 
losophy of  the  art,  the  means  of  its  advancement, 
and  the  ways  in  which  it  can  confer  the  greatest 
possible  benefits  on  mankind  —  these  are  the  topics 
which  will  command  the  attention  of  an  individual, 
in  proportion  as  his  views  are  expanded,  and  his 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


43 


feelings  benevolent.  No  inconsiderable  number 
of  self-taught  men  have,  in  this  way,  conferred  in- 
valuable benefits  upon  mankind.  Watt,  Fulton, 
Whitney,  Franklin  and  Davy,  will  be  dear  and 
cherished  names,  ages  hence. 

Another  class  of  individuals  to  whom  I  have 
alluded,  are  pursuing  a  partial  course  of  self-edu- 
cation, at  lyceums.  They  can  devote  to  literary 
and  scientific  pursuits  only  a  limited  portion  of 
time,  perhaps  simply  the  evenings  of  the  Winter 
months.  By  associating  all  the  young  men  and 
others  in  the  town,  and  statedly  meeting  for  the 
consideration  and  discussion  of  important  subjects, 
very  great  benefits  may  be  derived,  provided  the 
association  can  be  made  to  exist  for  a  sufficient 
length  of  time.  It  needs  a  principle  of  vitality. 
To  secure  any  great  degree  of  usefulness,  perma- 
nence must  be  given  to  it.  It  is  a  voluntary  asso- 
ciation, in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term.  But  no 
object  of  much  importance  can  be  secured,  without 
the  feeling  of  responsibleness,  or  accountability,  in 
some  of  the  individuals  concerned.  A  few  lec- 
tures on  the  common  and  familiar  topics  of  science, 
or  on  matters  of  local  history,  will  be  of  little 
service.  There  must  be  a  plan  to  secure  a  per- 
manent and  enduring  interest.  As  many  indi- 
viduals as  possible  must  be  brought  into  fervent 
cooperation.    New  arrangements  of  subjects  must 


44:  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 

be  occasionally  adopted.  Foreign  aid,  whenever 
practicable,  must  be  secured.  A  well  chosen  and 
constantly  accumulating  library  must  be  obtained. 
And,  what  is,  perhaps,  of  greater  importance  than 
anything  else,  all  the  members  must  have  something 
to  do.  Personal  participation  is  the  great  secret 
of  exciting  and  maintaining  a  permanent  interest 
in  an  undertaking. 

To  the  individual  who  will  even  cursorily  look 
at  the  state  of  this  country,  or  the  history  of  in- 
dividual men,  in  comparison  with  the  history  or 
condition  of  any  other  country,  it  must  appear 
strikingly  obvious,  that  never  were  circumstances 
more  favorable  than  among  us  for  the  develop- 
ment and  employment  of  mind.  In  this  country, 
character  and  influence  can  be  gained  by  vigorous 
individual  effort.  The  whole  community  are  the 
spectators  and  judges  of  the  advancement  of  every 
individual.  No  iron  hand  grasps  a  man  as  soon 
as  he  steps  into  the  world,  and  shrivels  him  up, 
while  another  rises  simply  because  he  is  kept  down. 
No  class  in  the  community  are  raised  by  the  con- 
dition of  their  birth,  or  by  such  adventitious  cir- 
cumstances, above  one  half  the  minds  around  them. 
Free  and  fresh  as  the  air  which  he  breathes,  each 
individual  may  start  in  the  career  of  improvement. 
Nearly  all  the  circumstances  which  are  calculated 
to  depress  and  dishearten,  arise  from  extreme 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


45 


poverty  and  a  very  obscure  parentage  and  birth- 
place, or  else  from  personal  considerations.  But 
nothing  short  of  absolute  impossibility,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  ought  to  deter  any  one  from 
engaging  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  Obstacles 
of  fearful  magnitude,  and  of  almost  every  descrip- 
tion, have  been  overcome  in  innumerable  instances. 

Have  you  been  deprived  of  one  of  your  senses  ? 
Not  a  few  have  vanquished  this  impediment.  The 
instance  of  Mr.  Nelson,  the  late  learned  and  classi- 
cal professor  in  Rutgers  college,  New  Jersey,  as 
detailed  by  Prof.  Mc Vicar,  in  his  Life  of  Griffin, 
is  admirably  in  point.  Total  blindness,  after  a 
long,  gradual  advance,  came  upon  him  about  his 
twentieth  year,  when  terminating  his  collegiate 
course.  It  found  him  poor,  and  left  him  to  all 
appearance  both  penniless  and  wretched,  with  two 
sisters  to  maintain,  without  money,  without  friends, 
without  a  profession,  and  without  sight.  Under 
such  an  accumulation  of  griefs,  most  minds  would 
have  sunk ;  but  with  him  it  was  otherwise.  At  all 
times  proud  and  resolute,  his  spirit  rose  at  once 
into  what  might  be  called  a  fierceness  of  inde- 
pendence. He  resolved  within  himself  to  be  in- 
debted for  support  to  no  hand  but  his  own.  His 
classical  education,  which,  from  his  feeble  vision, 
had  been  necessarily  imperfect,  he  now  determined 
to  complete,  and  immediately  entered  upon  the 


46 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


apparently  hopeless  task,  with  a  view  to  fit  him- 
self as  a  teacher  of  youth.  He  instructed  his 
sisters  in  the  pronunciation  of  Greek  and  Latin, 
and  employed  one  or  other  constantly  in  the  task 
of  reading  aloud  to  him  the  classics  usually  taught 
in  the  schools.  A  naturally  faithful  memory, 
spurred  on  by  such  strong  excitement,  performed 
its  oft-repeated  miracles  ;  and  in  a  space  of  time 
incredibly  short,  he  became  master  of  their  con- 
tents, even  to  the  minutest  points  of  critical 
reading.  On  a  certain  occasion,  a  dispute  having 
arisen  between  Mr.  Nelson  and  the  classical  pro- 
fessor of  the  college,  as  to  the  construction  of  a 
passage  in  Virgil,  from  which  his  students  were 
reading,  the  professor  appealed  to  the  circumstance 
of  a  comma  in  the  sentence,  as  conclusive  of  the 
question.  "  True,"  said  Mr.  Nelson  coloring,  with 
strong  emotion ;  "  but  permit  me  to  observe,"  added 
he,  turning  his  sightless  eyeballs  towards  the  book 
which  he  held  in  his  hand,  "  that  in  my  Heyne 
edition  it  is  a  colon,  and  not  a  comma."  He  soon 
established  a  school  for  classical  education.  The 
boldness  and  novelty  of  the  attempt  attracted  gen- 
eral attention ;  the  lofty  confidence  he  displayed  in 
himself,  excited  respect ;  and  soon  his  untiring  as- 
siduity, his  real  knowledge,  and  a  burning  zeal, 
which,  knowing  no  bounds  in  his  devotion  to  his 
scholars,  awakened  somewhat  of  a  corresponding 


INTRODUCTORY  E3SAT. 


47 


spirit  in  their  minds,  completed  the  conquest.  His 
reputation  spread  daily,  scholars  flocked  to  him  in 
crowds,  and  in  a  few  years  he  found  himself  in 
the  enjoyment  of  an  income  superior  to  that  of 
any  college  patronage  in  the  United  States.  Fer- 
nandez Navarete,  a  distinguished  Spanish  painter, 
was  seized  with  an  illness,  when  only  two  years 
old,  which  left  him  deaf  and  dumb  for  life.  Yet, 
in  this  state,  he  displayed,  from  his  infancy,  the 
strongest  passion  for  drawing,  covering  the  walls 
of  the  apartments  with  pictures  of  all  sorts  of  ob- 
jects, performed  with  charcoal ;  and  having  after- 
wards studied  under  Titian,  he  became  eventually 
one  of  the  greatest  artists  of  his  age.  He  could 
both  read  and  write,  and  even  possessed  consider- 
able learning.  Nicholas  Saunderson,  one  of  the 
illustrious  men  who  has  filled  the  chair  of  Lucasian 
professor  of  mathematics  at  Cambridge,  England, 
when  only  two  years  old,  was  deprived  by  small- 
pox, not  only  of  his  sight  but  of  his  eyes  themselves, 
which  were  destroyed  by  abscess.  He  was  sent 
to  the  school  at  Penniston,  early  in  life,  and  soon 
distinguished  himself  by  his  proficiency  in  Greek 
and  Latin.  He  acquired  so  great  a  familiarity 
with  the  Greek  language,  as  to  be  in  the  habit 
of  having  the  works  written  in  it  read  to  him, 
and  following  the  meaning  of  the  author  as  if  the 
composition  had  been  in  English ;  while  he  showed 


48 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


his  perfect  mastery  over  the  Latin,  on  many  oc- 
casions, in  the  course  of  his  life,  both  by  dictating 
and  speaking  it  with  the  utmost  fluency  and  com- 
mand of  expression.  In  1728,  he  was  created 
Doctor  of  Laws,  on  a  visit  of  George  II.  to  the 
university  of  Cambridge,  on  which  occasion  he  de- 
livered a  Latin  oration  of  distinguished  eloquence. 
He  published  an  able  and  well-known  treatise  on 
algebra,  a  work  on  fluxions,  and  a  Latin  commen- 
tary on  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Principia.  His  senses 
of  hearing  and  touch  were  carried  to  almost  in- 
credible perfection.  The  celebrated  mathema- 
tician, Euler,  was  struck  with  blindness  in  his 
fifty-ninth  year,  his  sight  having  fallen  a  sacrifice 
to  his  indefatigable  application.  He  had  literally 
written  and  calculated  himself  blind.  Yet,  after 
this  calamity,  he  continued  to  calculate  and  to  dic- 
tate books,  at  least,  if  not  to  write  them,  as  actively 
as  ever.  His  Elements  of  Algebra,  a  work  which 
has  been  translated  into  every  language  of  Europe, 
was  dictated  by  him  when  "blind,  to  an  amanuensis. 
He  published  twenty-nine  volumes  quarto,  in  the 
Latin  language  alone.  The  mere  catalogue  of  his 
published  works  extends  to  fifty  printed  pages.  At 
his  death,  he  left  about  a  hundred  memoirs  ready 
for  the  press. 

Have  you  wasted  the  early  part  of  life,  and  are 
you  now  compelled  to  commence,  if  at  all,  a  course 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  49 

of  self-education  in  the  later  period  of  youth,  or  in 
middle  age?  Let  not  this  circumstance,  in  the 
least  degree,  weaken  your  resolution.  Numerous 
are  the  instances  in  which  this  difficulty  has  been 
overcome.  Cato,  the  celebrated  Roman  censor, 
showed  his  force  of  character  very  strikingly,  by 
learning  the  Greek  language  in  his  old  age.  At 
that  time,  the  study  of  this  tongue  was  very  rare 
at  Rome  ;  and  the  circumstance  renders  the  deter- 
mination of  Cato,  and  his  success,  the  more  re- 
markable. It  was  the  first  foreign  language,  also, 
which  he  had  acquired.  Alfred  the  Great,  of 
England,  had  reached  his  twelfth  year  before  he 
had  even  learned  his  alphabet.  An  interesting 
anecdote  is  told  of  the  occasion  on  which  he  was 
first  prompted  to  apply  himself  to  books.  His 
mother,  it  seems,  had  shown  him  and  his  brothers 
a  small  volume,  iUuminated  or  adorned  in  different 
places  with  colored  letters,  and  such  other  embel- 
lishments as  was  then  the  fashion.  Seeing  it  ex- 
cite the  admiration  of  the  children,  she  promised 
that  she  would  give  it  to  him  who  would  first 
learn  to  read  it.  Alfred,  though  the  youngest, 
was  the  only  one  who  had  the  spirit  to  attempt  to 
gain  the  prize  on  such  conditions,  at  least  it  was 
he  who  actually  won  it ;  for  he  immediately,  as 
we  are  told,  went  and  procured  a  teacher  for  him- 
self, and  in  a  very  short  time  was  able  to  claim 
5 


50 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


the  promised  reward.  When  he  came  to  the 
throne,  notwithstanding  all  his  public  duties  and 
cares,  and  a  tormenting  disease,  which  scarcely 
ever  left  him  a  moment  of  rest,  it  was  his  custom, 
day  and  night,  to  employ  his  whole  leisure  time, 
either  in  reading  books  himself,  or  in  hearing 
them  read  by  others.  He,  however,  reached  his 
thirty-ninth  year  before  he  began  to  attempt 
translating  anything  from  the  Latin  tongue. 

The  French  dramatist,  Moliere,  could  only  read 
and  write  very  indifferently  when  he  was  fourteen 
years  of  age.  Dr.  Carter,  the  father  of  the  cele- 
brated Miss  Carter,  had  been  originally  intended 
for  a  grazier,  and  did  not  begin  his  studies  till  the 
age  of  nineteen  or  twenty.  He  eventually,  how- 
ever, became  a  distinguished  scholar  ;  and  gave  his 
daughters  a  learned  education.  Joannes  Pierius 
Valerianus  was  fifteen  years  old  before  he  began 
to  learn  to  read ;  his  parents,  indeed,  having  been 
so  poor,  that  he  was  obliged  to  commence  life  as  a 
domestic  servant.  He  became  one  of  the  most 
elegant  scholars  of  his  time.  Van  den  Vondel,  an 
honored  name  in  Dutch  poetry,  and  the  author  of 
works  which  fill  nine  quarto  volumes,  did  not  com- 
mence learning  Latin  till  his  twenty-sixth  year,  and 
Greek  not  till  some  years  afterwards.  Like  many 
others  of  the  literati  of  Holland,  he  began  life  as 
a  commercial  man,  and  originally  kept  a  hosier's 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAT. 


51 


shop  at  Amsterdam  ;  but  he  gave  up  the  business 
to  his  wife,  when  he  commenced  his  career  as  an 
author.  He  died  in  extreme  old  age,  after  having 
occupied,  during  a  great  part  of  his  life,  the  very 
highest  place  in  the  literature  of  his  country. 

John  Ogilby,  the  well  known  translator  of 
Homer,  was  originally  a  dancing-master.  He 
had  apprenticed  himself  to  that  profession,  on 
finding  himself  reduced  to  depend  on  his  own  re- 
sources, in  consequence  of  the  imprisonment  of 
his  father  for  debt.  Having  been  prospered  in 
this  pursuit,  he  was  very  soon  able  to  release  his 
father,  much  to  his  credit,  with  the  first  money 
which  he  procured.  When  he  had  fairly  estab- 
lished himself  in  Dublin,  the  rebellion  of  1641 
commenced,  and  not  only  swept  away  all  his  little 
property,  but  repeatedly  put  even  his  life  in  jeop- 
ardy. He  at  last  found  his  way  back  to  London, 
in  a  state  of  complete  destitution  ;  notwithstanding 
he  had  never  received  any  regular  education,  he 
had  before  this  made  a  few  attempts  at  verse- 
making,  and  in  his  extremity  he  bethought  him 
of  turning  his  talent  in  this  way  to  some  account. 
He  immediately  commenced  his  studies,  which  he 
was  enabled  to  pursue  chiefly  through  the  liberal 
assistance  of  some  members  of  the  university  of 
Cambridge  ;  and  although  then  considerably  above 
forty  years  of  age,  he  made  such  progress  in  Latin, 


52 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


that  he  was  soon  considered  able  to  undertake  a 
poetical  translation  of  Virgil.  This  work  make  its 
appearance  in  the  year  1650.  A  second  edition 
of  it  was  printed  a  few  years  afterwards,  with 
great  pomp  of  typography  and  embellishments. 
Such  was  its  success,  that  the  industrious  transla- 
tor actually  proceeded,  although  now  in  his  fifty- 
fourth  year,  to  commence  the  study  of  Greek,  in 
order  that  he  might  match  his  version  of  the 
iEneid  by  others  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  In 
due  time  both  appeared.  In  1666,  he  was  left, 
by  the  great  fire  of  London,  once  more  entirely 
destitute.  With  unconquerable  courage  and  per- 
severance, however,  he  rebuilt  his  house  and  re- 
established his  printing-press.  He  was  now  ap- 
pointed cosmographer  and  geographical  printer 
to  Charles  II.  He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-six 
years. 

In  the  United  States,  there  have  been  numerous 
instances  of  great  success  in  professional  pursuits, 
which  the  individuals  in  question  did  not  assume 
till  a  very  late  period  in  life.  An  eminent  clergy- 
man in  a  New  England  city,  toiled  in  one  of  the 
most  laborious  mechanical  professions,  till  he  was 
far  in  advance  of  that  age  when  study  is  gener- 
ally commenced.  He  then  pursued  a  regular 
academical  and  theological  education,  almost 
wholly  dependent  on  his  own  resources.    A  gen- 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  53 

tleman,  who  is  now  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
most  flourishing  of  the  American  colleges,  was 
employed  on  a  farm  as  a  hired  laborer,  till  he 
was  beyond  that  period  when  most  students  have 
completed  their  collegiate  education.  The  sud- 
den rise  of  the  waters  of  a  neighboring  river, 
which  prevented  him  from  proceeding  to  com- 
mence his  labors  on  another  farm,  was  the  event, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  which  determined  him 
to  begin  his  preparation  for  college.  A  number 
of  additional  striking  instances  will  be  found  in 
the  course  of  this  volume.  A  great  amount  of 
mind,  and  of  usefulness,  is  undoubtedly  wasted, 
by  the  belief  that  little  can  be  accomplished,  if 
an  individual  has  suffered  the  first  thirty  years  of 
his  life  to  pass  without  improvement.  Is  it  not 
an  erroneous  idea,  that  a  man  has  reached  the 
meridian  of  his  usefulness,  and  the  maturity  of 
his  powers,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  or  forty 
years  ?  What  necessity  exists  for  prescribing  a 
limit  to  the  onward  progress  of  the  mind  ?  Why 
set  up  a  bound  at  a  particular  time  of  life  more 
than  at  another  time  ?  Is  there  not  a  large  num- 
ber of  men,  in  this  country,  whose  history  would 
prove  the  contrary  doctrine,  —  who  have  actually 
exhibited  more  vigor  of  intellect  at  fifty  years  of 
age,  than  at  forty  ?  There  are  instances  among 
the  venerable  dead,  where  the  imagination  even 
5* 


54  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 

gathered  fresh  power  to  the  close  of  a  long  life. 
That  a  majority  of  facts  show  that  maturity  of 
intellect  is  attained  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  years, 
is  unquestionably  owing,  in  some  degree  at  least, 
to  the  influence  of  the  opinion  itself.  It  has 
operated  as  a  discouragement  to  effort. 

Once  more  —  are  you  called  to  struggle  with 
the  difficulties  arising  from  obscure  parentage  and 
depressing  poverty  ?  Here  multitudes  have  ob- 
tained most  honorable  triumphs,  and  have  appa- 
rently risen  in  the  scale  of  honor  and  usefulness 
in  proportion  to  the  depth  of  the  penury  or  degra- 
dation of  their  origin.  Laplace,  a  celebrated 
French  mathematician  and  astronomer,  and  whom 
Dr.  Brewster  supposes  posterity  will  rank  next 
after  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  was  the  son  of  a  farmer 
in  Normandy.  The  American  translator  of  his 
great  work,  the  Mecanique  Celeste,  and  who  has 
added  a  commentary  in  which  the  amount  of 
matter  is  much  greater  than  in  the  original  work, 
while  the  calculations  are  so  happily  elucidated, 
that  a^student  moderately  versed  in  mathematics, 
may  follow  the  great  astronomer  with  pleasure  to 
his  beautiful  results  —  is  entirely  a  self  taught 
man.  A  distinguished  benefactor  of  one  of  our 
principal  theological  seminaries,  has  risen  from 
extreme  poverty  to  the  possession  of  great  wealth 
and  respectability.    The  same  was  the  fact  also 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


55 


with  a  former  lieutenant  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, who,  in  the  days  of  his  highest  prosperity, 
had  none  of  that  pride  of  fortune  and  haughti- 
ness of  demeanor,  which  are  sometimes  conse- 
quent upon  the  unexpected  acquisition  of  a  large 
estate.  Several  of  the  most  useful  and  respected 
citizens  of  the  capital  of  New  England,  in  the 
early  part  of  their  lives,  were  entirely  destitute  of 
all  resources,  except  the  strength  of  their  own 
unconquerable  resolution,  and  the  favor  of  Provi- 
dence. The  celebrated  German  metaphysical 
philosopher,  Kant,  was  the  son  of  a  harness  ma- 
ker, who  lived  in  the  suburbs  of  his  native  city, 
Konigsberg.  He  had  hardly  arrived  at  the  age 
of  manhood  before  he  lost  both  his  parents,  who 
had  never  been  able  to  afford  him  much  pecuniary 
assistance.  His  own  industry  and  economy,  to- 
gether with  some  assistance  which  he  received 
from  his  relatives,  enabled  him  to  continue  his 
studies.  His  application  was  uncommonly  great, 
and  the  results  of  it,  numerous  and  extraordinary. 
He  published  a  work  on  the  Universal  Natural 
History  and  Theory  of  the  Heavens,  or  an  Essay 
on  the  Constitution  and  Mechanical  System  of 
the  whole  Globe,  according  to  the  Newtonian 
system.  In  this  treatise  he  anticipated  several  of 
the  discoveries  of  the  astronomer  Herschel.  His 
principal  metaphysical  work,  the  "Critique  of 


56  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 

Pure  Reason,"  produced  an  astonishing  sensation 
through  all  Germany.  He  was  appointed,  in 
1778,  professor  of  logic  and  metaphysics,  in  the 
university  of  Konigsberg.  James  Logan,  the 
friend  of  William  Penn,  and  for  some  time  chief 
justice  and  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  was  early 
in  life  apprenticed  to  a  linen-draper.  Pre- 
viously to  his  thirteenth  year,  he  had  studied  the 
Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages.  In  the 
sixteenth  year  of  his  age,  having  happily  met 
with  a  small  book  on  mathematics,  he  made  him- 
self master  of  it,  without  any  manner  of  instruc- 
tion. Having,  also,  further  improved  himself  in 
Greek  and  Hebrew,  he  acquired  the  French, 
Italian  and  Spanish  languages.  Like  William 
Penn,  he  was  a  warm  and  efficient  friend  of  the 
Indians.  He  was  a  man  of  uncommon  wisdom, 
moderation,  prudence,  of  unblemished  morals,  and 
inflexible  integrity.  LomonosofF,  the  father  of 
Russian  literature,  was  descended  from  a  poor 
family  in  the  government  of  Archangel.  His 
.  father  was  a  fisherman,  whom  he  assisted  in  his 
labors  for  the  support  of  his  family.  In  Winter,  a 
clergyman  taught  him  to  read.  A  poetical  spirit 
and  a  love  of  knowledge  were  awakened  in  the 
boy,  by  the  singing  of  the  psalms  at  church,  and 
the  reading  of  the  Bible.  Without  having  re- 
ceived any  instruction,  he  conceived  the  plan  of 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  57 

celebrating  the  wonders  of  creation,  and  the  great 
deeds  of  Peter  I.,  in  songs  similar  to  those  of 
David.  He  died  in  1765.  The  Russian  academy- 
have  published  his  works  in  six  volumes,  quarto. 
He  wrote  several  treatises  on  grammar,  history, 
mineralogy  and  chemistry,  besides  some  of  the 
best  poetry  in  the  language.  Winckelman,  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  writers  on  classic  an- 
tiquitie  and  the  fine  arts,  which  modern  times 
have  produced,  was  the  son  of  a  shoemaker.  His 
father,  after  vainly  endeavoring,  for  some  time, 
at  the  expense  of  many  sacrifices,  to  give  him  a 
learned  education,  was  at  last  obliged,  from  age 
and  ill  health,  to  retire  to  a  hospital,  where  he 
was,  in  his  turn,  supported  for  several  years  in 
part  by  the  labors  of  his  son,  who,  aided  by  the 
kindness  of  the  professors,  continued  to  keep 
himself  at  college,  chiefly  by  teaching  some  of 
his  younger  and  less  advanced  fellow  students. 
Bartholomew  Arnigio,  an  Italian  poet,  of  consid- 
erable eminence,  who  lived  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, followed  his  father's  trade  of  a  blacksmith, 
till  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  when  he  began,  of 
his  own  accord,  to  apply  to  his  studies ;  and  by 
availing  himself  of  the  aid  sometimes  of  one 
friend  and  sometimes  of  another,  prepared  him- 
self at  last  for  entering  the  university  of  Padua. 
Examples  of  this  description  it  is  unnecessary 


58 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


to  multiply.  The  records  of  all  the  learned  pro- 
fessions will  show  many  instances  admirably  in 
point.  Every  legislative  hall  would  furnish 
marked  and  illustrious  specimens.  The  last  de- 
gree of  penury,  the  most  abject  occupations  of 
life,  have  not  presented  an  insurmountable  obstacle 
to  improvement.  The  aspiring  mind  will  pass 
over  or  break  down  every  impediment.  Prisons 
cannot  chain  it.  Dungeons  cannot  immure  it. 
Racking  pains  cannot  palsy  its  energy.  Opposi- 
tion will  only  nurture  its  powers.  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress  was  written  by  a  tinker  in  prison ;  the 
Saint's  Rest,  on  a  bed  of  excruciating  pain; 
the  Apology  for  the  Freedom  of  the  Press,  and 
the  Sermons  upon  Modern  Infidelity,  in  the  inter- 
vals of  one  of  the  fiercest  diseases  which  ever 
preys  upon  man.  Pascal,  that  sublime  and  uni- 
versal genius,  equally  at  home  in  the  most  accu- 
rate analysis  and  in  the  widest  generalization, 
was  visited  with  an  inexorable  malady  during  the 
greater  part  of  his  life.  Dr.  Watts,  the  sweet 
psalmist  of  ages  yet  to  come,  was  as  weak  in 
body,  as  he  was  clear  and  powerful  in  intellect. 
On  some  occasions,  it  would  seem,  that  the  mind 
is  conscious  of  its  own  independence,  and  asserts 
its  distinct  and  unfettered  existence,  amidst  the 
severest  ills  which  can  befall  its  frail  and  dying 
companion. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


59 


It  is  worthy  of  deep  and  careful  consideration, 
whether  our  country  does  not  demand  a  new  and 
higher  order  of  intellect,  and  whether  the  class, 
whose  character  I  have  been  considering,  cannot 
furnish  a  vast  amount  of  materials.  It  is  not 
piety  alone  which  is  needed,  nor  strength  of  body, 
nor  vigor  of  mind,  nor  firmness  of  character,  nor 
purity  of  taste  ;  but  all  these  united.  Ought  not 
this  subject  to  awaken  the  attention  of  our  most 
philanthropic  and  gifted  minds  ?  Ought  not  social 
libraries  to  be  collected  with  this  main  purpose  — 
to  furnish  stimulant  to  call  forth  all  possible  native 
talents  and  hidden  energies  ?  Should  not  the 
lyceum  lay  hold  of  this  subject  in  every  village 
in  our  land  ?  Ought  not  the  systems  of  discipline 
and  instruction  at  all  our  colleges,  to  be  framed, 
and  to  be  administered,  with  a  distinct  and  de- 
clared regard  to  the  benefits  which  self-taught 
genius,  with  the  superadded  effects  of  thorough 
instruction,  can  confer  upon  the  millions  of  our 
country  ?  Every  parent,  and  every  instructer, 
should  employ  special  means  to  bring  his  children 
or  his  pupils  into  such  circumstances,  and  place 
in  their  way  such  books  and  other  means,  as  will 
develop  the  original  tendencies  of  their  minds, 
and  lead  them  into  the  path  of  high  attainment 
and  usefulness.  Every  educated  man  is  under 
great  responsibilities  to  bring  into  the  light  and  to 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


cherish  all  the  talent  which  may  be  concealed  in 
his  neighborhood.  Genius  lies  buried  on  our 
mountains  and  in  our  valleys.  Vast  treasures  of 
thought,  of  noble  feeling,  of  pure  and  generous 
aspirations,  and  of  moral  and  religious  worth, 
exist  unknown  —  are  never  called  forth  to  adorn 
human  nature,  and  to  bless  and  save  mankind. 
Shall  not  an  effort  now  be  made  to  bring  into  ac- 
tion all  the  available  intellect  and  piety  in  the 
country  ?  In  the  lapse  of  a  few  years,  more  than 
one  hundred  millions  of  human  beings,  on  this 
continent,  will  speak  the  English  language.  To 
provide  intellectual  and  moral  sustenance  for  such 
an  amazing  population,  requires  an  enlargement 
of  thought  and  an  expansiveness  of  philanthropy, 
such  as  has  never  yet  been  exhibited  on  our  earth. 
One  division  of  this  country  is  as  large  as  that 
realm  over  which  Augustus  Cresar  swayed  his 
sceptre,  and  which  Hannibal  tried  in  vain  to  con- 
quer. What  immense  tides  of  immortal  life  are 
to  sweep  over  this  country,  into  the  gulf  of  eter- 
nity. We  are  called  to  think  and  to  act  on  a 
grander  scale  than  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  man. 
This  nation  needs  what  was  conferred  on  Solo- 
mon, "  wisdom  and  understanding  exceeding  much, 
and  largeness  of  heart,  even  as  the  sand  that  is 
on  the  sea-shore."  How  pitiable  and  how  deplor- 
able are  all  the  contests  between  political  parties, 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


61 


and  benevolent  societies,  and  religious  denomina- 
tions. While  thus  contending  with  one  another, 
we  are  losing  forever  the  favorable  moment  for 
effort ;  and  we  are  preparing  to  have  heaped 
upon  our  heads  the  curses  of  an  unnumbered  pos- 
terity. We  are  the  representatives  of  millions. 
We  are  acting  for  masses  of  human  beings.  To 
live  simply  as  individuals,  or  a3  insulated  beings, 
is  a  great  error,  and  a  serious  injustice  to  our  pos- 
terity. We  must  take  our  stand  on  fundamental 
principles.  We  must  set  those  great  wheels  in 
motion,  which,  in  their  revolution,  are  to  spread 
light,  and  life,  and  joy  through  the  land.  While  we 
place  our  whole  dependence  on  the  goodness  and 
the  grace  of  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  we  must 
act  as  those  who  recollect  their  origin  at  the  Ply- 
mouth rock  and  from  Saxon  ancestry,  and  who 
are  conscious  of  the  high  destiny  to  which  Provi- 
dence calls  them. 

Let  us  come  up  to  our  great  and  most  interest- 
ing work.  Let  us  lift  our  eyes  on  the  fields, 
boundless  in  extent,  and  white  already  to  the  har- 
vest. Here  in  this  age,  here  in  this  new  world, 
let  the  tide  of  ignorance  be  stayed  ;  let  the  great 
mass  of  American  sentiment  be  thoroughly  puri- 
fied ;  let  human  nature  assume  its  renovated 
form ;  let  the  flame  of  human  intellect  rise,  and 
sweetly  mingle  with  the  source  of  all  mental  light 
6 


02 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


and  beauty  ;  let  our  character  and  labors  be  such, 
that  we  shall  send  forward  to  the  most  distant 
posterity,  a  strong  and  steady  light.  We  must 
take  no  middle  ground.  We  must  bring  to  the 
great  work  of  illuminating  this  country  and  of 
blessing  mankind,  every  capability  of  mind  and 
of  heart,  which  we  possess  —  every  possibility 
of  the  power  which  God  has  given  to  us. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 

"  The  self-taught  Sherman  urged  his  reasons  clear." 

Humphrey's  Poems. 

Roger  Sherman  was  born  at  Newton,  Mass., 
April  19,  1721.  His  great-grandfather,  Captain 
John  Sherman,  came  from  Dedham,  England,  to 
Watertown,  Massachusetts,  about  the  year  1635. 
His  grandfather,  William  Sherman,  was  a  farmer, 
in  moderate  circumstances.  In  1723,  the  family 
removed  from  Newton  to  Stoughton.  Of  the  child- 
hood and  early  youth  of  Sherman,  little  is  known. 
He  received  no  other  education  than  the  ordinary 
country  schools  in  Massachusetts  at  that  time 
afforded.  He  was  neither  assisted  by  a  public 
education  nor  by  private  tuition.  All  the  valu- 
able attainments  which  he  exhibited  in  his  future 
career,  were  the  result  of  his  own  vigorous  efforts. 
By  his  ardent  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  his  inde- 
fatigable industry,  he  attained  a  very  commendable 
acquaintance  with  general  science,  the  system  of 
logic,  geography,  mathematics,  the  general  princi- 
ples of  history,  philosophy,  theology,  and  particu- 
larly law  and  politics.  He  was  early  apprenticed 
to  a  shoemaker,  and  he  continued  to  pursue  that 
occupation  for  some  time  after  he  wa3  twenty-two 


04 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


years  of  age.  It  is  recorded  of  him,  that  he  was 
accustomed  to  sit  at  his  work  with  a  book  before 
him,  devoting  to  study  every  moment  that  his  eyes 
could  be  spared  from  the  occupation  in  which  he 
was  engaged.  During  the  Revolutionary  War, 
Mr.  Sherman  was  placed  on  a  Committee  of  Con- 
gress, to  examine  certain  army  accounts,  among 
which  was  a  contract  for  the  supply  of  shoes.  He 
informed  the  Committee  that  the  public  had  been 
defrauded,  and  that  the  charges  were  exorbitant, 
which  he  proved  by  specifying  the  cost  of  the 
leather  and  other  materials,  and  of  the  workman- 
ship. The  minuteness  with  which  this  was  done, 
exciting  some  surprise,  he  informed  the  Committee 
that  he  was  by  trade  a  shoemaker,  and  knew  the 
value  of  every  article.  He  was  sometimes  ac- 
cused, but  without  justice,  of  being  vain  of  the 
obscurity  of  his  origin.  From  the  distinguished 
eminence  which  he  reached,  he  probably  contem- 
plated with  satisfaction,  that  force  of  mind  and 
that,  industry,  which  enabled  him  to  overcome  all 
the  obstacles  which  encompassed  his  path.  For 
the  gratification  arising  from  such  a  contemplation, 
no  one  will  be  disposed  to  censure  him. 

When  he  was  nineteen  years  of  age,  his  father 
died.  His  eldest  brother  having  previously  re- 
moved to  New  Milford,  Connecticut,  the  principal 
charge  of  the  family  devolved  on  him.  At  this 
early  period  of  life,  the  care  of  a  mother,  who 
lived  to  a  great  age,  and  the  education  of  a  nu- 
merous family  of  brothers  and  sisters,  brought  into 
grateful  exercise  his  warm,  filial  and  fraternal 
affections.  The  assistance  subsequently  afforded 
by  him  to  two  of  his  younger  brothers,  enabled 
them  to  obtain  the  inestimable  advantages  of  a 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


C5 


public  education.  He  continued  to  reside  at 
Stoughton  about  three  years  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  principally  employed  in  the  cultivation  of 
the  farm,  and  in  otherwise  providing  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  family.  Before  he  was  twenty -one, 
he  made  a  public  profession  of  religion.  He  thus 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  character  in  piety.  That 
unbending  integrity  which  has  almost  made  his 
name  synonymous  with  virtue  itself,  was  acquired 
in  the  school  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Mr. 
Sherman  used  to  remark  to  his  family,  that  before 
he  had  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  he 
had  learned  to  control  and  govern  his  passions. 
His  success  in  these  efforts  he  attributed,  in  a  con- 
siderable degree,  to  Dr.  Watts'  excellent  treatise 
on  this  subject.  His  passions  were  naturally 
strong,  but  he  had  brought  them  under  subjection 
to  such  a  degree,  that  he  appeared  to  be  habitu- 
ally calm  and  sedate,  mild  and  agreeable.  All  his 
actions  seem  to  have  been  preceded  by  a  rigorous 
self-examination,  and  the  answering  of  the  secret 
interrogatories.  What  is  right?  —  What  course 
ought  I  to  pursue?  He  never  propounded  to 
himself  the  questions,  Will  it  be  popular  ?  —  How 
will  it  affect  my  interest  ?  Hence  his  reputation 
for  integrity  was  never  questioned. 

In  1743,  he  removed  with  the  family  to  New 
Milford,  a  town  near  New  Haven,  Connecticut. 
He  performed  the  journey  on  foot,  taking  care  to 
have  his  shoemaker's  tools  also  transported.  He 
there  commenced  business  as  a  country  merchant, 
and  opened  a  store  in  conjunction  with  his  elder 
brother,  which  he  continued  till  after  his  admission 
to  the  bar,  in  1754.  He  discontinued  his  trade  as  a 
shoemaker  at  the  time  this  connection  was  formed. 
6* 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


In  1745,  he  was  appointed  surveyor  of  lands  for 
the  county  in  which  he  resided.  Astronomical  cal- 
culations of  as  early  date  as  1748,  have  been  dis- 
covered among  his  papers.  They  were  made  by 
him  for  an  almanac,  then  published  in  New  York, 
and  which  he  continued  to  supply  for  several  suc- 
cessive years. 

About  this  time,  a  providential  circumstance  led 
him  to  aspire  after  a  higher  station  in  life.  He  was 
requested  by  a  friend  to  seek  for  him  legal  advice 
in  a  neighboring  town.  To  prevent  embarrass- 
ment and  secure  the  accurate  representation  of 
the  case,  he  committed  it  to  paper  as  well  as  he 
could  before  he  left  home.  In  stating  the  facts, 
the  lawyer  observed  that  Mr.  Sherman  frequently 
recurred  to  a  manuscript  which  he  held  in  his 
hand.  As  it  was  necessary  to  make  an  application 
by  way  of  petition,  to  the  proper  tribunal,  he  de- 
sired the  paper  to  be  left  in  his  hands,  provided  it 
contained  a  statement  of  the  case  from  which  a 
petition  might  be  framed.  Mr.  Sherman  reluc- 
tantly consented,  telling  him  that  it  was  merely  a 
memorandum  drawn  up  by  himself  for  his  own 
convenience.  The  lawyer,  after  reading  it,  re- 
marked, with  an  expression  of  surprise,  that,  with 
a  few  alterations  in  form,  it  was  equal  to  any  pe- 
tition which  he  could  have  prepared  himself,  and 
that  no  other  was  requisite.  Having  then  made 
some  inquiries  relative  to  Mr.  Sherman's  situation 
and  prospects  in  life,  he  advised  him  to  devote  his 
attention  to  the  study  of  the  law.  But  his  cir- 
cumstances and  duties  did  not  permit  him  at  once 
to  follow  this  counsel.  The  numerous  family, 
which  the  recent  death  of  his  father  had  made,  in 
a  considerable  degree,  dependent  on  him  for  sup- 


ROGER  SIIERMAN. 


G7 


port  and  education,  required  his  constant  exertions 
in  other  employments.  But  the  intimation  which 
he  there  received,  that  his  mind  was  fitted  for 
higher  pursuits,  no  doubt  induced  him  at  that  early 
period  of  life,  to  devote  his  leisure  moments  to 
those  studies  which  led  him  to  honor  and  distin- 
guished usefulness. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-eight  years,  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Elizabeth  Hartwell,  of  Stoughton,  Mass., 
by  whom  he  had  seven  children.  She  died  in 
October,  17 GO.  Two  of  his  children  died  in  New 
Milford,  and  two  after  his  removal  to  New  Haven. 
In  1763,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Rebecca  Pres- 
cott,  of  Danvers,  Mass.,  by  whom  he  had  eight 
children. 

In  May,  1759,  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
justices  of  the  court  of  common  pleas  for  the 
county.  He  was  for  many  years  the  treasurer 
of  Yale  college.  From  that  institution  he  receiv- 
ed the  honorary  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  After 
success  in  some  measure  had  crowned  his  efforts, 
he  still  continued  to  apply  himself  to  his  studies 
with  the  most  unremitted  diligence.  Encourage- 
ment, instead  of  elating  him,  only  prompted  him 
to  greater  effort.  In  the  profession  which  he  had 
chosen,  perhaps  more  than  in  any  other,  men  are 
compelled  to  rely  on  their  own  resources.  Such 
is  the  competition,  so  constant  is  the  collision  of 
various  minds,  that  ignorance  and  incompetency 
will  surely  be  detected  and  exposed. 

In  1766,  he  was  appointed  a  judge  of  the  su- 
perior court  of  Connecticut.  In  the  same  year, 
he  was  chosen  an  assistant  or  member  of  the 
upper  house  of  the  legislature.  The  first  office 
he  sustained  for  twenty-three  years,  the  last  for 


68 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


nineteen  years;  after  which  a  law  was  enacted 
rendering  the  two  offices  incompatible,  and  he 
chose  to  continue  in  the  office  of  judge.  It  is 
uniformly  acknowledged  by  those  who  witnessed 
his  conduct  and  abilities  on  the  bench,  that  he 
discovered  in  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
law  and  the  rules  of  evidence  to  the  cases  before 
him,  the  same  sagacity  that  distinguished  him 
as  a  legislator.  His  legal  opinions  were  received 
with  great  deference  by  the  profession,  and  their 
correctness  was  almost  universally  acknowledged. 
During  the  last  four  years  in  which  he  was  judge, 
the  late  Chief-Justice  Ellsworth  was  an  associate 
judge  of  the  same  court ;  and  from  the  period  of 
his  appointment,  in  1785,  until  the  death  of  Mr. 
Sherman,  a  close  intimacy  subsisted  between  them. 
The  elder  president  Adams  remarks  that,  u  It  is 
praise  enough  to  say  that  Mr.  Ellsworth  told  me 
that  he  had  made  Mr.  Sherman  his  model  in  his 
youth.  Indeed,  I  never  knew  two  men  more 
alike,  except  that  the  chief-justice  had  the  advan- 
tage of  a  liberal  education,  and  somewhat  more 
extensive  reading." 

The  period  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle  now 
drew  near.  Roger  Sherman,  as  it  might  have 
been  expected,  was  one  of  the  few  who,  from  the 
commencement  of  hostilities,  foresaw  what  would 
be  the  probable  issue.  He  engaged  in  the  defence 
of  our  liberties  with  the  deliberate  firmness  of  an 
experienced  statesman,  conscious  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  undertaking,  and  sagacious  in  devising  the 
means  for  successful  opposition. 

In  August,  1774,  Mr.  Sherman,  in  conjunction 
with  Joseph  Trumbull,  Eliphalet  Dyer  and  Silas 
Deane,  was  nominated  delegate  to  the  general 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


69 


congress  of  the  colonies.  lie  was  present  at  the 
opening  of  the  first  congress.  He  continued  a 
member  of  this  body  for  the  long  period  of  nineteen 
years,  till  his  death,  in  1703,  whenever  the  law  re- 
quiring a  rotation  in  office  admitted  it.  In  his  new 
post  of  duty  he  soon  acquired  distinguished  repu- 
tation. Others  were  more  admired  for  popular 
eloquence,  but  in  that  assembly  of  great  men  there 
was  no  one  whose  judgment  was  more  respected,  or 
whose  opinions  were  more  influential.  His  vener- 
able appearance,  his  republican  simplicity,  the  in- 
flexibility of  his  principles  and  the  decisive  weight 
of  his  character,  commanded  universal  homage.  In 
the  fatiguing  and  very  arduous  business  of  com- 
mittees, he  was  indefatigable.  He  was  always 
thorough  in  his  investigations,  and  all  his  pro- 
ceedings were  marked  by  system.  Among  the 
principal  committees  of  which  Mr.  Sherman  was 
a  member,  were  those  to  prepare  instructions  for 
the  army  in  Canada ;  to  establish  regulations  in 
regard  to  the  trade  of  the  United  Colonies;  to 
regulate  the  currency  of  the  country ;  to  furnish 
supplies  for  the  army ;  to  devise  ways  and  means 
for  providing  ten  millions  of  dollars  for  the  ex- 
penses of  the  current  year ;  to  concert  a  plan  of 
military  operations  for  the  campaign  of  1776;  to 
prepare  and  digest  a  form  of  confederation ;  and  to 
repair  to  head-quarters  at  New  York,  and  examine 
into  the  state  of  the  army. 

On  the  11th  of  June,  1776,  in  conjunction  with 
John  Adams,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin and  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Mr.  Sherman  was 
appointed  on  the  committee  to  prepare  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  The  committee  was 
elected  by  ballot.    The  Declaration,  as  it  is  well 


70 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


known,  was  written  by  Jefferson.  What  amount 
of  influence  was  exerted  by  Sherman,  in  carrying 
the  measure  through  the  congress,  is  not  certainly 
known.  The  records  of  the  proceedings  of  that 
illustrious  assembly  are  very  imperfect.  John 
Adams  says  of  him,  that  he  was  "  one  of  the 
soundest  and  strongest  pillars  of  the  Revolution." 
While  he  was  performing  the  most  indefatigable 
labors  in  congress,  he  devoted  unremitting  atten- 
tion to  duties  at  home.  During  the  War,  he  was 
a  member  of  the  governor's  council  of  safety. 

In  178  i,  he  was  elected  mayor  of  New  Haven, 
an  office  which  he  continued  to  hold  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  About  the  close  of  the 
War,  the  legislature  of  Connecticut  assigned  to  a 
committee  of  two,  the  arduous  service  of  revising 
the  laws  of  the  State.  Mr.  Sherman  was  one  of 
this  committee.  In  1787,  he  was  appointed,  in 
conjunction  with  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  and  Mr. 
Ellsworth,  a  delegate  to  the  general  convention 
to  form  the  constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Among  his  manuscripts  a  paper  has  been  found, 
containing  a  series  of  propositions,  prepared  by 
him  for  the  amendment  of  the  old  articles  of  con- 
federation, the  greater  part  of  which  are  incor- 
porated, in  substance,  in  the  new  constitution.  In 
the  debates  in  that  convention,  Mr.  Sherman  bore 
a  conspicuous  part.  In  a  letter  to  Gen.  Floyd, 
soon  after,  he  says,  "  Perhaps  a  better  constitution 
could  not  be  made  upon  mere  speculation.  If, 
upon  experience,  it  should  be  found  to  be  deficient, 
it  provides  an  easy  and  peaceable  mode  of  making 
amendments.  But,  if  the  constitution  should  be 
adopted,  and  the  several  States  choose  some  of 
their  wisest  and  best  men,  from  time  to  time,  to 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


71 


administer  the  government,  I  believe  it  will  not 
want  any  amendment.  1  hope  that  kind  Provi- 
dence, which  guarded  these  States  through  a  dan- 
gerous and  distressing  war,  to  peace  and  liberty, 
will  still  watch  over  them,  and  guide  them  in  the 
way  of  safety." 

His  exertions  in  procuring  the  ratification  of  the 
constitution  in  Connecticut,  were  conspicuous  and 
successful.  He  published  a  series  of  papers,  over 
the  signature  of  "  Citizen,"  which,  Mr.  Ellsworth 
says,  materially  influenced  the  public  mind  in 
favor  of  its  adoption.  After  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution,  he  was  immediately  elected  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  State  in  congress.  Though  ap- 
proaching the  seventieth  year  of  his  age,  he  yet 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  great  topics  of  dis- 
cussion which  came  before  congress. 

On  the  11th  of  February,  1790,  the  Quakers 
presented  an  address  to  the  house  on  the  subject 
of  the  "  licentious  wickedness  of  the  African  trade 
for  slaves."  A  long  and  violent  debate  occured  on 
the  propriety  of  its  being  referred  to  a  committee. 
Some  of  the  southern  members  opposed  it  with 
great  vehemence  and  acrimony.  Mr.  Scott,  of 
Pennsylvania,  replied,  in  an  eloquent  appeal  to  the 
justice  and  humanity  of  the  house.  Mr.  Sherman, 
perceiving  that  opposition  would  merely  serve  to 
inflame  the  already  highly  excited  feelings  of 
members,  with  his  usual  calmness,  remarked  that 
it  was  probable  the  committee  would  understand 
their  business,  and  they  might,  perhaps,  bring  in 
such  a  report  as  would  be  satisfactory  to  gentle- 
men on  both  sides  of  the  house.  Mr.  Sherman 
and  his  colleagues  were  triumphant ;  forty-three 
members  voting  in  favor  of  the  commitment  of  the 
memorial,  and  eleven  in  opposition. 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


Mr.  Sherman  uniformly  opposed  the  amend- 
ments to  the  constitution  which  were  at  various 
time  submitted  to  the  house.  "  I  do  not  suppose," 
said  he,  "  the  constitution  to  be  perfect,  nor  do  I 
imagine,  if  congress  and  all  the  legislatures  on 
the  continent  were  to  revise  it,  that  their  labors 
would  perfect  it."  He  maintained  that  the  more 
important  objects  of  government  ought  first  to  he 
attended  to ;  that  the  executive  portion  of  it 
needed  organization,  as  well  as  the  business  of  the 
revenue  and  judiciary. 

In  1791,  a  vacancy  having  occurred  in  the 
senate  of  the  United  States,  he  was  elected  to  fill 
that  elevated  station. 

On  the  23d  of  July,  1793,  this  great  and  ex- 
cellent man  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  in  the 
seventy-third  year  of  his  age.  He  died  in  full 
possession  of  all  his  powers,  both  of  mind  and 
of  body. 

The  most  interesting  lesson  which  the  life  of 
Mr.  Sherman  teaches  us,  is  the  paramount  im- 
portance of  religious  principle.  His  undeviating 
political  integrity  was  not  the  result  of  mere  pat- 
riotism, or  philanthropy.  He  revolved  in  a  high- 
er orbit.  The  volume  which  he  consulted  more 
than  any  other  was  the  Bible.  It  was  his  custom 
to  purchase  a  copy  of  the  scriptures  at  the  com- 
mencement of  every  session  of  congress,  to  peruse 
it  daily,  and  to  present  it  to  one  of  his  children 
on  his  return.  To  his  familiar  acquaintance  with 
this  blessed  book,  much  of  that  extraordinary 
sagacity  which  he  uniformly  exhibited,  is  to  be 
attributed.  The  second  President  Edwards  used 
to  call  him  his  "  great  and  good  friend,  senator 
Sherman,"  and  acknowledged,  that,  in  the  general 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


7.3 


course  of  a  long  and  intimate  acquaintance,  lie 
was  materially  assisted  by  his  observations  on  the 
principal  subjects  of  doctrinal  and  practical  divin- 
ity. "  He  was  not  ashamed,"  says  Dr.  Edwards, 
"  to  befriend  religion,  to  appear  openly  on  the 
Lord's  side,  or  to  avow  and  defend  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  grace.  lie  was  exemplary  in  attend- 
ing all  the  institutions  of  the  gospel,  in  the  prac- 
tice of  virtue  in  general,  and  in  showing  himself 
friendly  to  all  good  men.  With  all  his  elevation 
and  all  his  honors,  he  was  not  at  all  lifted  up,  but 
appeared  perfectly  unmoved. 

";  That  he  was  generous  and  ready  to  commu- 
nicate, I  can  testify  from  my  own  experience. 
He  was  ready  to  bear  his  part  of  the  expense  of 
those  designs,  public  and  private,  which  he  es- 
teemed useful ;  and  he  was  given  to  hospitality." 
What  an  example  is  here  presented  for  the  youth- 
ful lawyer  and  statesman  !  Would  he  rise  to  the 
most  distinguished  usefulness,  would  he  bequeath 
a  character  and  an  influence  to  posterity  u  above 
all  Greek  or  Roman  fame,"  let  him,  like  Roger 
Sherman,  lay  the  foundations  in  the  fear  of  God, 
and  in  obedience  to  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Another  most  important  practical  lesson  which 
we  derive  from  the  life  of  Mr.  Sherman,  is  the 
the  value  of  habits  of  study  and  meditation.  He 
was  not  only  distinguished  for  integrity,  but  for 
accurate  knowledge  of  history  and  of  human 
nature  —  the  combined  fruit  of  reading  and  re- 
flection. "  He  was  capable  of  deep  and  long 
investigation.  While  others,  weary  of  a  short 
attention  to  business,  were  relaxing  themselves  in 
thoughtless  inattention,  or  dissipation,  he  was  em- 
ployed in  prosecuting  the  same  business,  either 
7 


74 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


by  revolving  it  in  his  mind  and  ripening  his  own 
thoughts  upon  it,  or  in  conferring  with  others." 
While  laboriously  engaged  in  the  public  duties  of 
his  station,  he  had,  every  day,  a  season  for  private 
study  and  meditation. 

The  testimonials  to  his  extraordinary  worth 
have  been  singularly  marked  and  unanimous. 

Among  his  correspondents  were  Drs.  Johnson, 
(of  Stratford,)  Edwards,  Hopkins,  Trumbull, 
Presidents  Dickinson  and  Witherspoon.  Fisher 
Ames  was  accustomed  to  express  his  opinion  by 
saying,  "  That  if  he  happened  to  be  out  of  his 
seat  [in  congress]  when  a  subject  was  discussed, 
and  came  in  when  the  question  was  about  to  be 
taken,  he  always  felt  safe  in  voting  as  Mr.  Sher- 
man did,  for  he  always  voted  right."  Dr.  D wight, 
while  instructing  the  senior  class  at  Yale  college, 
observed,  that  Mr.  Sherman  was  remarkable  for 
not  speaking  in  debate  without  suggesting  some- 
thing new  and  important.  Washington  uniformly 
treated  Mr.  Sherman  with  great  respect  and  at- 
tention. Mr.  Macon,  a  distinguished  senator  of 
the  United  States,  once  remarked  to  the  Hon. 
William  Reed,  of  Marblehead,  that  "  Roger  Sher- 
man had  more  common  sense  than  any  man  he 
ever  knew."  The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Spring,  of 
Newburyport,  was  returning  from  the  South, 
while  congress  was  in  session  at  Philadelphia. 
Mr.  Jefferson  acompanied  him  to  the  hall,  and 
designated  several  distinguished  members  of  that 
body ;  in  the  course  of  this  polite  attention,  he 
pointed  in  a  certain  direction,  and  exclaimed, 
<k  That  is  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  a  man 
who  never  said  a  foolish  thing  in  his  life."  Mr. 
Sherman  was  never  removed  from  a  single  office, 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 


75 


except  by  promotion,  or  by  act  of  the  legislature 
requiring  a  rotation,  or  rendering  the  offices  in- 
compatible with  each  other.  Nor,  with  the 
restrictions  alluded  to,  did  he  ever  fail  in  his 
reelection  to  any  situation  to  which  he  had  been 
once  elected,  excepting  that  of  representative  of 
New  Haven  in  the  legislature  of  the  State ;  — 
which  office,  at  that  period,  was  constantly  fluctu- 
ating. 

It  closing  this  biographical  sketch,  it  is  proper 
to  add,  that  Mr.  Sherman,  in  his  person,  was  con- 
siderably above  the  common  stature;  his  form 
was  erect  and  well  proportioned,  his  complexion 
fair,  and  his  countenance  manly  and  agreeable. 
In  the  relations  of  husband,  father  and  friend,  he 
was  uniformly  kind  and  faithful.  He  was  natur- 
ally modest ;  and  this  disposition,  increased,  per- 
haps, by  the  deficiencies  of  early  education,  often 
wore  the  appearance  of  bashfulness  and  reserve. 
In  conversation  relating  to  matters  of  importance, 
he  was  free  and  communicative. 

The  legacy  which  Mr.  Sherman  has  bequeath- 
ed to  his  countrymen,  is  indeed  invaluable.  The 
Romans  never  ceased  to  mention  with  inexpres- 
sible gratitude  the  heroism,  magnanimity,  con- 
tentment, disinterestedness,  and  noble  public  ser- 
vices of  him  who  was  called  from  the  plough 
to  the  dictator's  chair.  His  example  was  a  light 
to  all  the  subsequent  ages.  So  among  the  galaxy 
of  great  men  who  shine  along  the  tracts  of  our 
past  history,  we  can  scarcely  refer  to  one,  save 
Washington,  whose  glory  will  be  more  steady 
and  unfading  than  that  of  Roger  Sherman. 


HEYNE  OF  GOTTINGEN. 


Christian  Gottlob  Heyne,  a  distinguished 
scholar,  was  born  Sept.  25,  1729,  at  Chemnitz,  in 
Saxony,  whither  his  father,  a  poor  linen-weaver, 
had  fled  from  Silesia  on  account  of  religious  per- 
secutions. The  family  were  often  reduced  to  the 
miseries  of  the  lowest  indigence.  In  the  Memoirs 
of  his  own  life,  Heyne  says,  "  Want  was  the  ear- 
liest companion  of  my  childhood.  I  well  remem- 
ber the  painful  impressions  made  on  my  mind  by 
witnessing  the  distress  of  my  mother  when  with- 
out food  for  her  children.  How  often  have  I  seen 
her,  on  a  Saturday  evening,  weeping  and  wring- 
ing her  hands,  as  she  returned  home  from  an 
unsuccessful  effort  to  sell  the  goods  which  the 
daily  and  nightly  toil  of  my  father  had  manufac- 
tured." His  parents  sent  him  to  a  child's  school 
in  the  suburbs  of  the  small  town  of  Chemnitz. 
He  soon  exhibited  an  uncommon  desire  of  acquir- 
ing information.  He  made  so  rapid  a  progress  in 
the  humble  branches  of  knowledge  taught  in  the 
school,  that,  before  he  had  completed  his  tenth 
year,  he  was  paying  a  portion  of  his  school  fees 
by  teaching  a  little  girl,  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy 
neighbor,  to  read  and  write.  Having  learned 
everything  comprised  in  the  usual  course  of  the 
school,  he. felt  a  strong  desire  to  learn  Latin.  A 
son  of  the  schoolmaster,  who  had  studied  at  Lcip- 
sic,  was  willing  to  teach  him  at  the  rate  of  foui 
pence  a  week ;  but  the  difficulty  of  paying  su 


PROFESSOR  HEYNE. 


77 


large  a  fee  seemed  quite  insurmountable.  One 
day  he  was  sent  to  his  godfather,  who  was  a 
baker,  in  pretty  good  circumstances,  for  a  loaf 
As  he  went  along,  he  pondered  sorrowfully  on  the 
great  object  of  his  wishes,  and  entered  the  shop 
in  tears.  The  good-tempered  baker,  on  learning 
the  cause  of  his  grief^  undertook  to  pay  the  re- 
quired fee  for  him,  at  which  Heyne  tells  us  he 
was  perfectly  intoxicated  with  joy ;  and  as  he 
ran,  all  ragged  and  barefoot,  through  the  streets, 
tossing  the  loaf  in  the  air,  it  slipped  from  his 
hands  and  rolled  into  the  gutter.  This  accident, 
and  a  sharp  reprimand  from  his  parents,  who 
could  ill  afford  such  a  loss,  brought  him  to  his 
senses.  He  continued  his  lessons  for  about  two 
years,  when  his  teacher  acknowledged  that  he 
had  taught  him  all  which  he  himself  knew.  At 
this  time,  his  father  was  anxious  that  he  should 
adopt  some  trade ;  but  Heyne  felt  an  invincible 
desire  to  pursue  his  education.  He  had  another 
godfather,  who  was  a  clergyman  in  the  neighbor- 
hood; and  this  person,  on  receiving  the  most  flat- 
tering accounts  of  Heyne  from  his  last  master, 
agreed  to  be  at  the  expense  of  sending  him  to  the 
principal  seminary  of  his  native  town  of  Chem- 
nitz. His  new  patron,  however,  doled  out  his 
bounty  with  the  most  scrupulous  parsimony  ;  and 
Heyne,  without  the  necessary  books  of  his  own, 
wras  often  obliged  to  borrow  those  of  his  compan- 
ions, and  to  copy  them  over  for  his  own  use.  At 
last  he  obtained  the  situation  of  tutor  to  the  son 
of  one  of  the  citizens ;  and  this  for  a  short  time 
rendered  his  condition  more  comfortable.  But 
the  period  was  come  when,  if  he  was  to  proceed 
in  the  career  which  he  had  chosen,  it  was  neces- 
7* 


78 


rnoFEsson  iieyxe. 


sary  for  him  to  enter  the  university ;  and  he 
resolved  to  go  to  Leipsic.  He  arrived,  accord- 
ingly, in  that  city,  with  only  about  four  shillings 
in  his  pocket,  and  nothing  more  to  depend  upon, 
except  the  small  assistance  which  he  might  re- 
ceive from  his  godfather,  "who  had  promised  to 
continue  his  bounty.  He  had  to  wait,  however, 
so  long,  for  his  expected  supplies  from  this  source, 

—  which  came  accompanied  with  much  grudging 
and  reproach  when  they  did  make  their  appear- 
ance, —  that,  destitute  both  of  money  and  books,  he 
would  even  have  been  without  bread,  too,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  compassion  of  the  maid-servant 
of  the  house  where  he  lodged.  "  What  sustained 
my  courage  in  these  circumstances,"  he  remarks, 
"  was  neither  ambition,  nor  presumption,  nor  even 
the  hope  of  one  day  taking  my  place  among  the 
learned.  The  stimulus  which  incessantly  spurred 
me  on,  was  the  feeling  of  the  humiliation  of 
my  condition,  —  the  shame  with  which  I  shrank 
from  the  thought  of  that  degradation  which  the 
want  of  a  good  education  would  impose  upon  me, 

—  above  all,  the  determined  resolution  of  battling 
courageously  with  fortune.  I  was  resolved  to  try 
whether,  although  she  had  thrown  me  among  the 
dust,  I  should  not  be  able  to  rise  up  by  the  vigor 
of  my  own  efforts."  His  ardor  for  study  only 
grew  the  greater  as  his  difficulties  increased. 
For  six  months  he  only  allowed  himself  two 
nights'  sleep  in  the  week ;  and  yet  all  the  while, 
his  godfather  scarcely  ever  wrote  to  him  but  to 
inveigh  against  his  indolence,  —  often  actually 
addressing  his  letters  on  the  outside  "  To  M. 
Heyne,  Idler,  at  Leipsie." 

In  the  meantime,  while  his  distress  was  becom- 


PROFESSOR  HEYXE. 


70 


ing,  every  Jay,  more  intolerable,  he  was  offered 
by  one  of  the  professors,  the  situation  of  a  tutor 
in  a  family  at  Magdeburg.  Desirable  as  the 
appointment  would  have  been  in  every  other  re- 
spect, it  would  have  removed  him  from  the  scene 
of  his  studies,  and  he  declined  it.  He  resolved 
to  remain  in  the  midst  of  all  his  miseries  at  Leip- 
sic.  Through  the  favor  of  Providence,  he  was 
in  a  few  weeks  recompensed  fur  this  sacrifice. 
The  same  professor  procured  for  him  a  situation 
in  the  university,  similar  to  the  one  he  had  refused 
in  Magdeburg.  This,  of  course,  relieved,  for  a 
time,  his  pecuniary  wants  ;  but  still  the  ardor  with 
which  he  pursued  his  studies  continued  so  great, 
that  at  last  it  brought  on  a  dangerous  illness, 
which  obliged  him  to  resign  his  situation,  and  very 
soon  completely  exhausted  his  trifling  resources, 
so  that  on  his  recovery  he  found  himself  as  poor 
and  destitute  as  ever.  In  this  extremity,  a  copy 
of  Latin  verses  which  he  had  written  having 
attracted  the  attention  of  one  of  the  Saxon  min- 
isters, he  was  induced  by  the  advice  of  his  friends 
to  set  out  for  the  court  at  Dresden,  where  it  was 
expected  that  this  patronage  would  make  his  for- 
tune ;  but  he  was  doomed  only  to  new  disappoint- 
ments. After  having  borrowed  money  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  his  journey,  all  he  obtained  from  the 
courtier  was  a  few  vague  promises,  which  ended 
in  nothing.  He  was  obliged,  eventually,  after 
having  sold  his  books,  to  accept,  the  place  of  copy- 
ist in  the  library  of  the  Count  de  Bruhl,  with  the 
miserable  annual  salary  of  seventy-five  dollars. 
But  he  had  not  been  idle  at  Leipsic.  He  had 
listened,  with  great  benefit,  to  the  lectures  of 
Ernesti  on  the  principles  of  interpretation;  to 


SO 


PROFESSOR  HETNE. 


some  valuable  archaelogical  and  antiquarian  lec- 
tures ;  and  to  the  eloquent  disquisitions  of  Bach 
on  Roman  antiquities  and  jurisprudence.  At 
Dresden,  besides  performing  the  duties  of  his 
situation,  he  found  time  to  do  a  little  work  for  the 
booksellers.  For  a  learned  and  excellent  edition 
of  the  Latin  poet,  Tibullus,  he  received  one  hun- 
dred crowns.  In  this  way  he  contrived  to  live  a 
few  years,  all  the  while  studying  hard,  and  think- 
ing himself  amply  compensated  for  the  hardships 
of  his  lot,  by  the  opportunities  which  he  enjoyed 
of  pursuing  his  favorite  researches  in  a  city  so 
rich  in  collections  of  books  and  antiquities  as 
Dresden.  After  he  had  held  his  situation  in  the 
library  for  above  two  years,  his  salary  was 
doubled ;  but  before  he  derived  any  benefit  from 
the  augmentation,  the  seven  years'  war  had  com- 
menced. Saxony  was  overrun  by  the  forces  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  and  Heyne's  place,  and  the 
library  itself  to  which  it  was  attached,  were 
swept  away  at  the  same  time.  He  was  obliged 
to  fly  from  Dresden,  and  wandered  about,  for  a 
long  time,  without  employment.  At  last  he  was 
received  into  a  family  in  Wittenberg ;  but  in  a 
short  time,  the  progress  of  the  war  drove  him 
from  this  asylum,  also,  and  he  returned  to  Dres- 
den, where  he  still  had  a  few  articles  of  furniture, 
which  he  had  purchased  with  the  little  money 
which  he  had  saved  while  he  held  his  place  in  the 
library.  He  arrived  just  in  time  to  witness  the 
bombardment  of  that  capital,  in  the  conflagration 
of  which  his  furniture  perished,  as  well  as  some 
property  which  he  had  brought  with  him  from 
Wittenberg,  belonging  to  a  lady,  one  of  the  family 
in  whose  house  he  had  lived.    For  this  lady  he 


mOFESSOR  HEYNE. 


81 


had  formed  an  attachment  during  his  residence 
there.  Thus  left,  both  of  them  without  a  shilling, 
the  young  persons  determined  to  share  each 
other's  destiny,  and  they  were  accordingly  united. 
By  the  exertions  of  some  common  friends,  a  re- 
treat was  procured  for  Heyne  and  his  wife  in  the 
establishment  of  a  M.  de  Leoben,  where  he  spent 
some  years,  during  which  his  time  was  chiefly 
occupied  in  the  management  of  that  gentleman's 
property. 

But  Providence  was  now  about  to  visit  him 
with  the  smiles  of  prosperity.  In  1763,  he  re- 
turned to  Dresden.  Some  time  before  this,  the 
Professorship  of  Eloquence  in  the  University  of 
Gottingen  had  become  vacant  by  the  death  of 
John  Mathias  Gessner.  The  chair  had  been 
offered,  in  the  first  instance,  to  David  Ruhnken, 
one  of  the  first  scholars  of  the  age,  who  declined, 
however,  to  leave  the  University  of  Leyden, 
where  he  had  lately  succeeded  the  eminent  Hems- 
terhuis  as  professor  of  Greek.  But  happily, 
Ruhnken  had  seen  the  edition  of  Tibullus,  and 
another  of  Epictetus,  which  Heyne  had  some 
time  previously  published.  Ruhnken  ventured 
to  suggest  to  the  Hanoverian  minister  the  extraor- 
dinary merits  of  Heyne,  and  he  was  accordingly 
nominated  to  the  professorship.  He  was  soon 
after  appointed  first  librarian  and  counsellor.  To 
discharge  the  functions  of  these  posts  required 
the  most  multiplied  labors.  He  says  of  himself, 
with  great  candor,  that,  "  till  he  was  professor,  he 
never  learned  the  art  it  was  his  duty  to  teach." 
But  he  soon  made  himself  at  home  in  his  new 
duties.  By  his  lectures  ;  by  his  connection  with 
the  Royal  Society,  founded  at  Gottingen  by  Hal- 


82  PROFESSOR  HEYNE. 

ler;  by  his  indefatigable  participation  in  the  Got- 
tingen  Literary  Gazette  ;  by  the  direction  of  the 
Philological  Seminary,  which,  under  his  guidance, 
was  a  nursery  of  genuine  philology,  and  has 
given  to  the  schools  of  Germany  a  great  number 
of  good  teachers ;  by  all  this,  together  with  his 
editions  and  commentaries  on  classic  authors, 
Heyne  has  deserved  the  reputation  of  being  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  teachers  and  scholars 
which  the  literary  world  has  seen.  The  centre 
of  his  activity  was  the  poetic  department  of  clas- 
sical literature.  His  principal  work,  which  em- 
ployed him  for  eighteen  years,  was  his  unfinished 
edition  of  Homer.  He  brought  the  library  of 
Gottingen  to  such  excellence,  that  it  is  regarded 
as  the  first  in  Europe,  because  all  the  departments 
are  methodically  filled.  Not  merely  the  fame  of 
his  great  learning,  but  the  weight  of  his  character 
and  the  propriety  and  delicacy  of  his  deportment, 
procured  him  the  acquaintance  of  the  most  emi- 
nent men  of  his  time.  George  Forster,  Huber, 
and  Heeren  became  his  sons-in-law.  In  danger- 
ous times,  the  influence  which  he  acquired,  and 
his  approved  uprightness  and  wisdom,  were  of 
great  service  to  the  university.  By  his  efforts, 
the  university  and  city  were  spared  the  necessity 
of  affording  quarters  to  the  soldiery,  while  the 
French  had  possession  of  Hanover,  from  1804  to 
1805. 

An  attack  of  appoplexy  terminated  his  life,  on 
the  14th  of  July,  1802.  He  was  in  the  eighty- 
third  year  of  his  age. 


WILLIAM  WHIPPLE. 


The  father  of  Whipple  was  a  native  of  Ips- 
wich, Massachusetts,  and  was  bred  a  maltster. 
He  was,  also,  for  some  time,  engaged  in  sea-faring 
pursuits.  He  married  Mary,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  Robert  Cutt.  She  was  a  lady  of  excellent 
sense,  and  of  many  pleasing  accomplishments. 
William  Whipple  was  born  in  Kittery,  Maine, 
in  the  year  1730.  He  received  his  education  in 
one  of  the  public  schools  in  that  town,  where  he 
was  taught  reading,  writing,  arithmetic  and 
navigation.  When  this  deficient  course  of  edu- 
cation was  completed,  he  left  school,  and  immedi- 
ately embarked  on  board  of  a  merchant  vessel, 
for  the  purpose  of  commencing  his  destined  pro- 
fession as  a  sailor.  Before  he  was  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  he  obtained  the  command  of  a  ves- 
sel, and  performed  a  number  of  voyages  to 
Europe,  and  the  West  Indies.  He  was  after- 
wards engaged  in  the  infamous  slave  traffic. 
This  circumstance  in  his  life  admits  of  no  justifi- 
cation. The  fact  that  good  men  formerly  partici- 
pated in  it,  only  proves  how  much  avarice  hardens 
the  human  heart  and  sears  the  natural  conscience. 
In  1759,  Mr.  Whipple  abandoned  the  sea,  and 
engaged  in  mercantile  business  for  some  time, 
with  his  brother  Joseph.  He  married  his  cousin, 
Catharine  Moffat,  daughter  of  John  Moffat,  Esq., 
a  merchant  of  Portsmouth.  At  an  early  period 
of  the  revolutionary  contest,  Mr.  Whipple  took  a 
decided  part  in  favor  of  the  colonies,  and  in  oppo- 


WILLIAM  WHIPPLE. 


sition  to  the  claims  of  the  parent  country.  So 
much  confidence  was  placed  in  his  integrity  and 
firmness,  that  his  fellow  citizens  frequently  placed 
him  in  highly  important  offices.  In  January, 
J  775,  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  representatives  of 
Portsmouth  to  the  provincial  congress,  which 
met  at  Exeter.  By  that  body  he  was  elected  one 
of  the  provincial  committee  of  safety.  In  1776, 
he  was  chosen  a  delegate  to  the  general  con- 
gress, which  met  at  Philadelphia.  He  continued 
to  be  reelected  for  the  three  following  years. 
This  appointment  gave  Mr.  Whipple  the  oppor- 
tunity to  record  his  name  among  the  memorable 
list  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. The  cabin  boy,  who,  thirty  years  before, 
had  looked  forward  to  the  command  of  a  vessel 
as  the  consummation  of  his  hopes,  now  stood 
among  a  band  of  patriots,  more  illustrious  than 
any  which  the  world  had  yet  seen.  lie  was 
considered  a  very  useful  and  active  member.  In 
the  business  of  committees,  he  displayed  a  most 
commendable  degree  of  perseverance,  ability  and 
application.  In  1777,  when  Burgoyne  was  rapidly 
advancing  from  Canada,  the  assembly  of  New 
Hampshire  Avas  convened,  and  more  decisive 
measures  were  adopted  to  defend  the  country. 
Two  brigades  were  formed ;  the  command  of  one 
of  which  wras  given  to  Gen.  Stark,  and  of  the 
other  to  Whipple.  Whipple  was  present  with 
his  brigade  at  the  battles  of  Stillwater  and  Sara- 
toga. He  was  one  of  the  commissioners  appoint- 
ed by  Gates  to  treat  with  Burgoyne,  and  was 
afterwards  selected  to  conduct  the  British  troops 
to  Boston. 

He  was  accompanied  on  this  expedition  by  a 


WILLIAM  WHIPPLE. 


85 


negro  servant,  named  Prince,  whom  he  had  import- 
ed from  Africa.  On  his  way  to  the  army,  he  told 
his  servant,  that  if  they  should  be  called  into  ac- 
tion, he  expected  that  he  would  behave  like  a 
man  of  courage.  Prince  replied,  "  Sir,  I  have 
no  inducement  to  fight ;  but  if  I  had  my  liberty,  I 
would  endeavor  to  defend  it  to  the  last  drop  of 
my  blood."  The  general  emancipated  him  upon 
the  spot.  In  1778,  he  accompanied  Gen.  Sulli- 
van in  his  expedition  to  Rhode  Island.  For  more 
than  two  years  he  was  receiver  of  finance,  a  most 
arduous  and  responsible  office,  under  Robert 
Morris.  About  this  period,  Gen.  Whipple  began 
to  be  afflicted  with  severe  strictures  in  the  breast, 
which  compelled  him  to  decline  any  further  mili- 
tary command.  In  1782,  he  was  appointed  one 
of  the  judges  of  the  superior  court  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, in  which  office  he  continued  till  his  death. 
In  November,  1785,  he  expired,  in  consequence 
of  an  ossification  of  the  heart.  He  was  in  the 
fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 

On  the  whole,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  very 
useful  man  in  a  period  abounding  in  distinguished 
talent.  The  variety  of  offices  which  he  filled 
with  propriety  and  ability,  is  not  a  little  remarka- 
ble. Master  of  a  vessel  —  merchant  —  leader 
of  militia-men  —  an  interpreter  of  the  old  confed- 
eration and  of  the  laws  of  his  native  State,  and 
a  committee-man  in  congress.  He  had  but  little 
education  in  the  schools.  He  taught  himself.  His 
powers  of  observation  on  men  and  things,  were 
turned  to  the  best  account.  In  his  manners,  Gen. 
Whipple  was  courteous  and  affable,  and  he  ap- 
pears to  have  possessed  an  estimable  character  for 
integrity  and  general  morality. 
8 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


Alexander  Murray  was  born  in  the  parish 
of  Minnigaff,  in  the  shire  of  Kircudbright,  Scot- 
land, on  the  twenty-second  of  Octobor,  1775. 
His  father  was,  at  this  time,  nearly  seventy  years 
of  age,  and  had  been  a  shepherd  all  his  life,  as 
his  own  father,  and  probably  his  ancestors  for 
many  generations  had  been.  Alexander's  mother 
was  also  the  daughter  of  a  shepherd,  and  was  the 
old  man's  second  wife  ;  several  sons,  whom  he 
had  by  a  former  marriage,  being  all  brought  up 
to  the  same  primitive  occupation.  His  father 
died  in  1797,  at  the  age  of  ninety-one.  He  seems 
have  been  possessed  of  considerable  natural  sagac- 
ity, and  of  some  learning. 

Alexander  received  his  first  lessons  in  reading, 
from  his  father.  "  The  old  man,"  he  tells  us, 
"  bought  him  a  catechism,  (which,  in  Scotland,  is 
generally  printed  with  a  copy  of  the  alphabet  in 
large  type  prefixed;)  but  as  it  was  too  good  a 
book  for  me  to  handle  at  all  times,  it  was  gen- 
erally locked  up,  and  my  father,  throughout  the 
Winter,  drew  the  figures  of  the  letters  to  me,  in 
his  written  hand,  on  the  board  of  an  old  wool  card, 
with  the  black  end  of  an  extinguished  heather 
stem  or  root  snatched  from  the  fire.  I  soon  learn- 
ed all  the  alphabet  in  this  form,  and  became 
writer  as  well  as  reader.  I  wrought  with  the 
board  and  brand  continually.  Then  the  catechism 
was  presented,  and  in  a  month  or  two,  I  could 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


87 


read  the  easier  parts  of  it.  I  daily  amused  my- 
self with  copying,  as  above,  the  printed  letters. 
In  May,  1782,  my  father  gave  me  a  small  psalm- 
hook,  for  which  I  totally  abandoned  the  catechism. 
I  soon  got  many  psalms  by  memory,  and  longed 
for  a  new  book.  Here  difficulties  arose.  The 
Bible  used  every  night  in  the  family,  I  was  not 
permitted  to  touch.  The  rest  of  the  books 
were  put  up  in  chests.  I  at  length  got  a  New 
Testament,  and  read  the  historical  parts  with 
great  curiosity  and  ardor.  But  I  longed  to  read 
the  Bible,  which  seemed  to  me  a  much  more 
pleasant  book;  and  I  actually  went  to  a  place 
where  I  knew  an  old  loose-leaved  Bible  lay,  and 
carried  it  away  in  piece-meal.  I  perfectly  re- 
member the  strange  pleasure  I  felt  in  reading  the 
histories  of  Abraham  and  David.  I  liked  mourn- 
ful narratives ;  and  greatly  admired  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel  and  the  Lamentations.  I  pored  on  these 
pieces  of  the  Bible  in  secret  for  many  months,  but 
I  durst  not  show  them  openly  ;  and  as  I  read  con- 
stantly and  remembered  well,  I  soon  astonished 
all  our  honest  neighbors  with  the  large  passages 
of  scripture  which  I  repeated  before  them.  I 
have  forgotten  too  much  of  my  biblical  knowledge, 
but  I  can  still  rehearse  all  the  names  of  the  patri- 
archs, from  Adam  to  Christ,  and  various  other 
narratives  seldom  committed  to  memory." 

His  father's  whole  property  consisted  only  of 
two  or  three  scores  of  sheep  and  four  muirland 
cows.  "He  had  no  debts  and  no  money/'  As  all 
his  other  sons  were  shepherds,  it  was  with  him  a 
matter  of  course  that  Alexander  should  be  brought 
up  the  same  way ;  and  accordingly,  as  soon  as  he 
had  strength  for  anything,  that  is,  when  he  was 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


about  seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  he  was  sent  to 
the  hills  with  the  sheep.  He  however  gave  no 
promise  ot*  being  a  good  shepherd,  and  he  was 
often  blamed  by  his  father  as  lazy  and  useless. 
Pie  was  not  stout,  and  he  was  near-sighted,  which 
his  father  did  not  know.  "  Besides,"  says  he,  "  I 
was  sedentary,  indolent,  and  given  to  books  and 
writing  on  boards  with  coals."  But  his  father 
was  too  poor  to  send  him  to  school,  his  attendance 
upon  which,  indeed,  was  scarcely  practicable,  un- 
less he  boarded  in  the  village,  from  which  their 
cottage  was  five  or  six  miles  distant.  About  this 
time  a  brother  of  his  mother's,  who  had  made 
a  little  money,  came  to  pay  them  a  visit ;  and 
hearing  such  accounts  of  the  genius  of  his 
nephew,  whose  fame  was  now  the  discourse  of 
the  whole  glen,  offered  to  be  at  the  expense  of 
boarding  him  for  a  short  time  in  New  Galloway, 
and  keeping  him  at  school  there.  As  he  tells  us 
himself,  he  made  at  first  a  somewhat  awkward 
figure  on  this  new  scene.  "  My  pronunciation 
was  laughed  at,  and  my  whole  speech  was  a  sub- 
ject of  fun.  But  I  soon  gained  impudence  ;  and 
before  vacation  in  August,  I  often  stood  dux  of 
the  Bible  class.  I  was  in  the  mean  time  taught 
to  write  copies,  and  use  paper  and  ink.  But  I 
both  wrote  and  printed,  that  is,  imitated  printed 
letters,  when  out  of  school." 

His  attendance  at  school,  however,  had  scarcely 
lasted  for  three  months,  when  he  fell  into  bad 
health,  and  was  obliged  to  return  home.  For 
nearly  five  years  after  this,  he  was  left  again  to 
be  his  own  instructer,  with  no  assistance  whatever 
from  any  one.  He  soon  recovered  his  health,  but 
during  the  long  period  we  have  mentioned,  he 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


89 


looked  in  vain  for  the  means  of  again  pursuing 
his  studies  under  the  advantages  which  he  had 
for  a  short  time  enjoyed.  As  soon  as  he  became 
sufficiently  well,  he  was  put  to  his  old  employ- 
ment of  assisting  the  rest  of  the  family  as  a 
shepherd-boy.  "  I  was  still,"  says  he,  "  attached 
to  reading,  printing  of  words,  and  getting  by 
heart  ballads,  of  which  I  procured  several. 

About  this  time  and  for  years  after,  I  spent 
every  sixpence,  that  friends  or  strangers  gave  me, 
on  ballads  and  penny  histories.  I  carried  bundles 
of  these  in  my  pockets,  and  read  them  when  sent 
to  look  for  cattle  on  the  banks  of  Loche  Greanoch. 
and  on  the  wild  hills  in  its  neighborhood."  And 
thus  passed  away  about  three  years  of  his  life. 
All  this  time  the  Bible  and  these  ballads  seem  to 
have  formed  almost  his  only  reading ;  yet  even 
with  this  scanty  library  he  contrived  to  acquire, 
among  the  simple  inhabitants  of  the  glen,  a  repu- 
tation for  unrivalled  erudition.  "  My  fame  for 
reading  and  a  memory,  was  loud,  and  several  said 
that  I  was  a '  living  miracle.'  I  puzzled  the  honest 
elders  of  the  church  with  recitals  of  scripture, 
and  discourses  about  Jerusalem,  &c."  Towards 
the  close  of  the  year  1787,  he  borrowed  from  a 
friend  L'Estrange's  translation  of  Josephus,  and 
Salmon's  Geographical  Grammar.  This  last  work 
had  no  little  share  in  directing  the  studies  of  his 
future  life.  "  I  got  immense  benefit  from  Sal- 
mon's book.  It  gave  me  an  idea  of  geography 
and  universal  history,  and  I  actually  recollect  at 
this  time  almost  everything  which  it  contains." 

A  grammar  of  geography  was  almost  the  first 
thing  which  James  Ferguson  studied;  although 
the  minds  of  the  two  students,  differing  as  they 
8* 


00 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


did  in  original  character,  were  attracted  by  differ- 
ent parts  of  their  common  manual ;  the  one  pon- 
dering its  description  of  the  artificial  sphere,  the 
other  musing  over  its  accounts  of  foreign  lands, 
and  of  the  history  and  languages  of  nations  in- 
habiting them.  Murray,  however,  learned  also  to 
copy  the  maps  which  he  found  in  the  book ;  and, 
indeed,  carried  the  study  of  practical  geography 
so  far,  as  to  make  similar  delineations  of  his 
native  glen,  and  its  neighborhood. 

lie  was  now  twelve  years  of  age  ;  and  as  there 
seemed  to  be  no  likelihood  that  he  would  ever  be 
able  to  gain  his  bread  as  a  shepherd,  his  parents 
were  probably  anxious  that  he  should  attempt 
something  in  another  way  to  help  to  maintain 
himself. 

Accordingly,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1787, 
he  engaged  as  teacher  in  the  families  of  two  of  the 
neighboring  farmers  ;  for  his  services  in  which  ca- 
pacity, throughout  the  winter,  he  was  remunerated 
with  the  sum  of  sixteen  shillings  !  He  had  proba- 
bly, however,  his  board  free  in  addition  to  his 
salary,  of  which  he  immediately  laid  out  a  part  in 
the  purchase  of  books.  One  of  these  wras  Cocker's 
Arithmetic,  "  the  plainest  of  all  books,"  says  he, 
"  from  which,  in  two  or  three  months,  I  learned 
the  four  principal  rules  of  arithmetic,  and  even 
advanced  to  the  rule  of  three,  with  no  additional 
assistance,  except  the  use  of  an  old  copy-book  of 
examples  made  by  some  boy  at  school,  and  a  few 
verbal  directions  from  my  brother  Eobert,  the  only 
one  of  all  my  father's  sons,  by  his  first  marriage, 
that  remained  with  us."  He  borrowed,  about  the 
same  time,  some  old  magazines  from  a  country 
acquaintance.    "My  memory,  now,"  says  he, 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


91 


"  contained  a  very  large  mass  of  historical  facts 
and  ballad-poetry,  which  I  repeated  with  pleasure 
to  myself,  and  the  astonished  approbation  of  the 
peasants  around  me."  At  last,  his  father  having 
been  employed  to  herd  on  another  farm,  which 
brought  him  nearer  the  village,  Alexander  was 
once  more  permitted  to  attend  school  at  MinnigalF, 
for  three  days  in  the  week.  "  I  made  the  most," 
says  he,  "  of  these  days ;  I  came  about  an  hour 
before  the  school  met ;  I  pored  on  my  arithmetic, 
in  which  I  a  in  still  a  proficient ;  and  I  regularly 
opened  and  read  all  the  English  books,  such  as 
the  '  Spectator,'  '  World,'  &c,  brought  by  the  chil- 
dren to  school.  I  seldom  joined  in  any  play  at  the 
usual  hours,  but  read  constantly."  This  second 
period  of  his  attendance  at  school,  however,  did 
not  last  so  long  as  the  former.  It  terminated  at 
the  autumn  vacation,  that  is  to  say,  in  about  six 
weeks. 

In  1790,  he  again  attended  school,  during  the 
summer,  for  about  three  months  and  a  half.  It 
seems  to  have  been  about  this  time  that  his  taste 
for  learning  foreign  languages  first  began  to  de- 
velop itself,  having  been  excited  by  the  study  of 
Salmon's  Geography.  "I  had,"  he  writes,  "in 
1787  and  1788  often  admired  and  mused  on  the 
specimens  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  in  every  lan- 
guage, found  in  Salmon's  Grammar.  I  had  read 
in  the  magazines  and  Spectator  that  Homer, 
Virgil,  Milton,  Shakspeare  and  Newton  were  the 
greatest  of  mankind.  I  had  been  early  informed, 
by  some  elders  and  good  religious  people,  that 
Hebrew  was  the  first  language.  In  1789,  at 
Drigmore,  an  old  woman,  who  lived  near,  showed 
me  her  psalm-book,  which  was  printed  with  a 


A  L  E  X  A  N  DER  M  U  R  RAY. 


large  type,  had  notes  on  each  page,  and  likewise, 
what  I  discovered  to  be  the  Hebrew  alphabet, 
marked  letter  after  letter  in  the  119  th  Psalm.  I 
took  a  copy  of  these  letters,  by  printing  them  off 
in  my  old  way,  and  kept  them."  Meantime,  as 
he  still  entertained  the  notion  of  going  out  as  a 
clerk  to  the  West  Indies,  he  took  advantage  of  a 
few  leisure  weeks  to  begin  the  study  of  the  French 
language.  He  used  to  remain  in  school  during 
the  middle  of  the  day,  while  his  companions  were 
at  play,  and  compare  together  the  different  gram- 
ma rs  used  in  the  class. 

"  About  the  fifteenth  of  June,''  says  he,  "  Kerr, 
one  of  my  class-fellows,  told  me  that  he  had  once 
learned  Latin  for  a  fortnight,  but  had  not  liked  it, 
and  still  had  the  Rudiments  beside  him.  I  said, 
Do  lend  me  them  ;  I  Avish  to  see  what  the  nouns 
and  verbs  are  like,  and  whether  they  resemble 
our  French.  He  gave  me  the  book.  I  examined 
it  for  four  or  live  days,  and  found  that  the  nouns 
had  changes  on  the  last  syllables,  and  looked  very 
singular.  I  used  to  repeat  a  lesson  from  the 
French  Rudiments  every  forenoon  in  school.  On 
the  morning  of  the  midsummer  fair  of  Newton 
Stewart,  I  set  out  for  school,  and  accidentally  put 
into  my  pocket  the  Latin  Grammar  instead  of  the 
French  Rudiments.  On  an  ordinary  day,  Mr. 
Cramond  would  have  chid  me  for  this  ;  but  on  that 
festive  morning  he  was  mellow,  and  in  excellent 
spirits,  —  a  state  not  good  for  a  teacher,  but  al- 
ways desired  in  him  by  me,  for  then  he  was  very 
communicative.  With  great  glee,  he  replied, 
when  I  told  him  my  mistake,  and  showed  him  the 
Grammar,  ''Gad,  Sandy,  I  shall  try  thee  with 
Latin  •'  and  accordingly  read  over  to  me  no  less 


A  L  EX  A  N  I)  E  K  M  U  ItR  A  Y. 


93 


than  two  of  the  declensions.  It  was  his  custom 
with  me  to  permit  me  to  get  as  long  lessons  as  I 
pleased,  and  never  to  fetter  me  by  joining  me  to 
a  class.  There  was  at  that  time  in  the  school  a 
class  of  four  boys,  advanced  as  far  as  the  pronouns 
in  Latin  Grammar.  They  ridiculed  my  sepa- 
rated condition ;  but  before  the  vacation,  in  Au- 
gust, I  had  reached  the  end  of  the  Rudiments, 
knew  a  good  deal  more  than  they,  by  reading,  at 
home,  the  notes  on  the  foot  of  each  page ;  and  was 
so  greatly  improved  in  French,  that  I  could  read 
almost  any  French  book  at  opening  of  it.  I  com- 
pared French  and  Latin,  and  riveted  the  words 
of  both  in  my  memory  by  this  practice.  When 
proceeding  with  the  Latin  verbs,  I  often  sat  in 
the  school  all  mid-day  and  pored  on  the  page  of 
Robert  Cooper's  [another  of  his  school-fellows,] 
Greek  Grammar,  —  the  only  one  I  had  ever  seen. 
He  was  then  reading  Livy  and  learning  Greek. 
By  the  help  of  his  book  I  mastered  the  letters, 
but  I  saw  the  sense  of  the  Latin  rules  in  a  very 
indistinct  manner.  Some  boy  lent  me  an  old 
Corderius,  and  a  friend  made  me  a  present  of 
Eutropius.  There  was  a  copy  of  Eutropius  in 
the  school,  which  had  a  literal  translation.  I 
studied  this  last  with  great  attention,  and  com- 
pared the  English  and  Latin.  When  my  lesson 
was  prepared,  I  always  made  an  excursion  into 
the  rest  of  every  book ;  and  my  books  were  not 
like  those  of  other  school-boys,  opened  only  in 
one  place,  and  where  the  lesson  lay." 

All  this  was  the  work  of  about  two  months  and 
a  half  before  the  vacation,  and  a  fortnight  after  it. 
During  the  winter,  he  employed  every  spare 
moment  in  pondering  upon  some  Latin  books.   "  I 


94 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


literally  read,"  says  lie,  "  Ainsworth's  Dictionary 
throughout.  My  method  was  to  revolve  the  leaves 
of  the  letter  A ;  to  notice  all  the  principal  words 
and  their  Greek  synonymes,  not  omitting  a  glance 
at  the  Hebrew  ;  to  do  the  same  by  B,  and  so  on 
through  the  book;  I  then  returned  from  X  and  Z 
to  A.  And  in  these  winter  months  I  amassed  a 
large  stock  of  Latin  and  Greek  vocables.  From 
this  exercise  I  took  to  Eutropius,  Ovid  and  Ca-sar, 
or  at  times,  to  Ruddiman's  Grammar.  Here  I  got 
another  book,  which  from  that  time  has  influenced 
and  inflamed  my  imagination.  This  was  Paradise 
Lost,  of  which  1  had  heard,  and  which  I  was  eager 
to  see.  I  cannot  describe  the  ardor,  or  various  feel- 
ings, with  which  I  read,  studied  and  admired  this 
first-rate  work.  I  found  it  as  difficult  to  understand 
as  Latin,  and  soon  saw  that  it  required  to  be  parsed, 
like  that  language.  I  account  my  first  acquaint- 
ance with  Paradise  Lost  an  era  in  my  reading." 
The  next  summer  was  spent  still  more  laboriously 
than  the  preceding.  He  again  attended  school, 
where  he  found  a  class  reading  Ovid,  Caesar  and 
Virgil.  "  I  laughed,"  says  he,  u  at  the  difficulty 
with  which  they  prepared  their  lessons ;  and  often 
obliged  them  by  reading  them  over,  to  assist  the 
work  of  preparation."  He  employed  his  time  at 
home  in  almost  incessant  study.  "  My  practice 
was,"  he  remarks,  "  to  lay  down  a  new  and  difficult 
book,  after  it  had  wearied  me,  to  take  up  another, 
then  a  third,  and  to  resume  this  rotation  frequently 
and  laboriously.  I  always  strove  to  seize  the  sense, 
but  when  I  supposed  that  I  had  succeeded,  I  did 
not  weary  myself  with  analyzing  every  sentence." 
Having  introduced  himself  to  Mr.  Maitland,  the 
clergyman  of  the  parish,  by  writing  letters  to  him 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


05 


in  Latin  and  Greek,  lie  obtained  from  that  gentle- 
man a  number  of  classical  books,  which  he  read 
with  great  diligence.  He  was  soon  so  privileged 
as  to  obtain  a  copy  of  a  Hebrew  Grammar  and 
of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  "  I  made  good  use,"  says 
he,  "of  this  loan;  I  read  the  Bible  throughout, 
and  many  passages  and  books  of  it  a  number  of 
times."  It  would  appear  that  he  had  actually 
made  himself  familiar,  and  that  chiefly  by  his 
own  unassisted  exertions,  with  the  French,  Latin, 
Greek  and  Hebrew  languages,  and  perused  sev- 
eral of  the  principal  authors  in  all  of  them,  within 
about  a  year  and  a  half  from  the  time  when  they 
were  all  entirely  unknown  to  him ;  for  it  was  at 
the  end  of  May,  1790,  that  he  commenced,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  study  of  French,  and  all  this  work 
had  been  done  by  the  end  of  November,  in  the 
following  year.  There  is  not,  perhaps,  on  record 
a  more  extraordinary  instance  of  youthful  ardor 
and  perseverance.  It  may  serve  to  show  what  is 
possible  to  be  accomplished. 

He  was  again  engaged  in  teaching  during  the 
winter,  and  received  for  his  labor,  as  he  states, 
about  thirty-five  or  forty  shillings.  Every  spare 
hour  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  Latin,  Greek, 
Hebrew  and  French.  In  the  summer  of  1792  he 
returned  to  school  for  the  last  time.  The  different 
periods  of  his  school  attendance,  added  together, 
make  about  thirteen  months,  scattered  over  the 
space  of  nearly  eight  years.  Having  obtained  a 
copy  of  Bailey's  Dictionary,  he  found  in  it  the 
Anglo-Saxon  alphabet,  and  many  words  in  the 
same  dialect.  This  was  his  introduction  to  the 
study  of  the  northern  languages.  He  also  made 
himself  acquainted  with  many  Welsh  phrases, 


96 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


from  a  small  religions  treatise  in  the  language, 
without  any  dictionary  or  grammar.  This  was 
done  by  minute  observation  and  comparison  of 
words,  terminations  and  phrases.  He  also  made 
himself  acquainted  with  the  Arabic  and  Abys- 
sinian alphabets.  He  was  also  guilty  of  writing 
several  thousand  lines  of  an  epic  poem,  "  which 
was  not  without  obligations  to  Ossian,  Milton  and 
Homer."  Before  he  completed  the  seventh  book 
he  threw  the  unfinished  epic  into  the  fire. 

Murray  was  now  in  his  nineteenth  year.  His 
most  intimate  school-companion  had  gone  to  the 
university,  for  which,  no  doubt,  Murray  felt  that 
lie  was  far  better  qualified,  if  his  utter  want  of 
resources  had  not  opposed  an  insurmountable 
barrier.  He  had  happened  to  purchase  a  volume 
of  the  manuscript  lectures  of  a  German  professor 
on  Roman  literature,  written  in  Latin.  Having 
translated  these  lectures,  he  carried  his  translation 
to  Dumfries,  but  neither  of  the  two  booksellers 
would  print  them.  He  then  concluded  to  print 
some  poems  by  subscription.  From  this  design 
he  was  fortunately  induced  to  depart  by  the  ad- 
vice of  the  celebrated  Robert  Burns.  "  Burns,'' 
says  he,  "  treated  me  with  great  kindness,  and  told 
me  if  I  could  get  out  to  college  without  publishing 
my  poems,  it  would  be  much  better,  as  my  taste 
was  young  and  not  formed,  and  I  should  be 
ashamed  of  my  productions.,  when  I  could  write 
and  judge  better." 

It  so  happened,  that  there  was  in  the  neighbor- 
hood an  itinerant  tea-merchant,  by  the  name  of 
MTIarg,  who  knew  Murray  well,  and  had  formed 
so  high  an  idea  of  his  genius  and  learning,  that  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  sounding  his  fame  wherever 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


97 


he  went.  Among  others  to  whom  he  spoke  of 
him,  was  Mr.  James  Kinnear,  of  Edinburgh,  then 
a  journeyman  printer  in  the  king's  printing-office. 
Mr.  Kinnear,  with  a  zeal  which  does  him  great 
credit,  immediately  suggested  that  Murray  should 
transmit  an  account  of  himself,  and  some  evidence 
of  his  attainments,  to  Edinburgh,  which  he  under- 
took to  lay  before  some  of  the  literary  men  of  that 
city.  This  plan  was  adopted.  Murray  was  ex- 
amined by  the  principal  and  several  of  the  pro- 
fessors. He  so  surprised  them  by  the  extent  and 
accuracy  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  languages, 
that  measures  for  his  admission  to  the  university, 
and  his  maintenance,  were  immediately  taken. 
These  arrangements  were  principally  effected  by 
the  exertions  of  principal  Baird.  His  ardent  and 
most  efficient  patronage  of  one,  thus  recommended 
to  him  only  by  his  deserts  and  his  need  of  patron- 
age, entitles  him  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  all  the 
friends  of  learning.  Murray  was,  indeed,  soon 
able  to  support  himself.  All  his  difficulties  may 
be  said  to  have  been  over  as  soon  as  he  found 
his  way  to  the  university. 

For  the  next  ten  or  twelve  years  of  his  life,  he 
resided  principally  at  Edinburgh.  No  man  that 
ever  lived,  probably,  not  excepting  Sir  William 
Jones  himself,  has  prosecuted  the  study  of  lan- 
guages to  such  an  extent  as  Murray.  By  the 
end  of  his  short  life  scarcely  one  of  the  oriental 
or  northern  tongues  remained  uninvestigated  by 
him,  so  far  as  any  sources  for  acquiring  a  knowl- 
edge of  them  were  accessible.  Of  the  six  or 
seven  dialects  of  the  Abyssinian  or  Ethiopic  lan- 
guage, in  particular,  he  made  himself  much  more 
completely  master  than  any  European  had  been 

Q 


98 


ALEXANDER  MUIiRAT. 


before.  This  led  to  his  being  selected  by  the 
booksellers,  in  1802,  to  prepare  an  edition  of 
Bruce's  Travels,  which  appeared  in  1805,  in 
seven  volumes,  octavo,  and  at  once  placed  him  in 
the  first  rank  of  the  oriental  scholars  of  the  age. 
In  1806,  he  left  Edinburgh,  in  order  to  officiate 
as  clergyman  in  the  parish  of  Urr,  in  Dumfries- 
shire. All  his  leisure  moments  were  devoted  to 
the  composition  of  his  stupendous  work  on  the 
languages  of  Europe. 

In  1812,  the  professorship  of  oriental  languages 
in  the  university  of  Edinburgh  became  vacant. 
Mr.  Murray's  friends  immediately  seized  the  op- 
portunity of  endeavoring  to  obtain  for  him  the 
situation,  of  all  others,  which  he  seemed  destined 
to  fill.  The  contest  was,  eventually,  carried  on 
between  Murray  and  a  single  opponent.  The 
result  was  very  doubtful,  as  the  election  depended 
on  the  town-council,  a  corporate  body  of  thirty- 
three  individuals.  Extraordinary  exertions  were 
made  by  the  friends  of  both  candidates.  Mr.  Salt, 
the  distinguished  orientalist,  stated  that  Mr.  Mur- 
ray was  the  only  man  in  the  British  dominions, 
in  his  opinion,  capable  of  translating  an  Ethiopic 
letter  which  he  had  brought  into  the  country. 
Among  those  who  exerted  themselves  in  his  be- 
half, were  Dr.  James  Gregory,  Professors  Leslie, 
Playfair,  Dugald  Stewart,  Mr.  Jeffrey,  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  &c.  AYell  was  Mr.  Murray  entitled  to  say, 
before,  he  learned  the  result  of  the  election,  "  If 
the  efforts  of  my  friends  have  been  exerted  for  an 
unsuccessful  candidate,  they  will  not  be  forgotten, 
for  ice  have  'perished  in  light"  He  was  elected 
by  a  majority  of  two  votes.  On  the  thirty-first 
of  October,  Mr.  Murray  entered  on  the  discharge 


ALEXANDER  MURRAY. 


99 


of  his  duties,  though,  alas,  near  the  grave.  His 
excessive  labors  had  prostrated  his  strength.  On 
the  thirteenth  of  April  he  retired  to  the  bed  from 
which  he  never  rose ;  before  the  close  of  another 
day  he  was  among  the  dead.  He  was  in  the 
thirty-eighth  year  of  his  age. 

His  History  of  European  Languages,  though 
left  by  him  in  a  very  imperfect  state,  is  still  a 
splendid  monument  of  his  ingenuity  and  erudition. 


STEPHEN  HOPKINS. 


Stephen  Hopkins  was  born  in  that  part  of 
the  then  town  of  Providence,  R.  L,  which  now 
forms  the  town  of  Scituate,  on  the  seventh  of 
March,  1707.  His  great  grandfather,  Thomas 
Hopkins,  was  one  of  the  primitive  settlers  of 
Providence.  With  the  first  dawnings  of  active 
life,  Stephen  Hopkins  was  esteemed  for  his  worth, 
and  his  regular  and  useful  habits.  As  an  evidence 
of  the  propriety  of  his  conduct  when  only  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  his  father  gave  him  a  deed  of 
gift  for  seventy  acres  of  land,  and  his  grandfather 
bestowed  on  his  "  loving  grandson,"  an  additional 
tract  of  ninety  acres.  He  received  nothing  more 
than  a  plain  country  education,  by  which  he 
acquired  an  excellent  knowledge  of  penmanship, 
and  became  conversant  in  the  practical  branches 
of  the  mathematics,  particularly  surveying.  Be- 
ing the  son  of  a  farmer,  he  continued  the  occupa- 
tion of  his  father,  after  the  death  of  the  latter,  and, 
in  1731,  increased  his  estate  in  Scituate,  by  the 
purchase  of  adjoining  lands.  He  continued  this 
mode  of  life  until  his  removal  to  Providence,  in 
1748,  when  he  sold  his  farm,  and  built  a  mansion 
in  that  town,  in  which  he  continued  to  reside  until 
his  death. 

In  March,  1731-2,  Mr.  Hopkins  made  his  first 
appearance  in  the  public  service  in  the  humble 
station  of  town-clerk  of  Scituate,  from  which  he 
rose  through  almost  every  gradation  of  office 


STEPHEN  HOrKINS. 


101 


to  the  highest  dignity  of  the  State.  In  May, 
1739,  he  was  appointed  chief  justice  of  the  court 
of  common  pleas.  He  was  extensively  employed, 
till  an  advanced  age,  in  the  business  of  surveying 
lands.  The  nicety  of  his  calculations  is  attested 
by  the  following  circumstances.  In  taking  the 
survey  of  a  tract  of  land,  he  passed  over  a  plain 
thickly  set  with  shrubbery.  Soon  after,  he  found 
that  his  watch,  which  cost  twenty-five  guineas  in 
London,  was  missing.  Supposing  that  the  chain 
had  become  entangled  in  the  bushes,  and  the 
watch  thereby  pulled  from  his  pocket,  he  set  the 
course  back,  and  found  it  hanging  on  a  bush. 

In  May,  1751,  he  was  appointed,  for  the  four- 
teenth time,  a  representative  in  the  assembly.  In 
May,  1756,  he  was  chosen  Governor  of  the  State, 
and  continued  to  occupy  this  station,  at  intervals, 
for  seven  years. 

In  1767,  when  the  politics  of  the  colony  were 
carried  to  a  great  excess,  Mr.  Hopkins  magnani- 
mously retired  from  his  office,  and  a  third  person 
was  elected.  By  this  measure,  harmony  was  in 
a  great  degree,  restored. 

When  the  difficulties  between  the  colonies  and 
Great  Britain  began  to  grow  alarming,  Gov. 
Hopkins  took  an  active,  early,  and  determined 
part  in  favor  of  the  colonies.  In  August,  1774, 
in  connection  with  the  Hon.  Samuel  Ward,  he 
was  appointed  to  represent  Rhode  Island,  in  the 
general  congress. 

In  the  same  year,  Mr.  Hopkins  was  a  member 
of  the  assembly  of  the  state.  Principally  by  his 
influence  and  exertions,  an  act  was  passed,  pro- 
hibiting the  importation  of  negroes  into  the 
colony.  In  the  year  before,  he  emancipated  a 
9* 


102 


STEPHEN  HOPKINS. 


number  of  people  of  color,  whom  he  had  held  as 
slaves. 

In  May,  1776,  Mr.  Hopkins  was,  for  the  third 
time,  elected  to  congress.  His  name  is  attached 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  His  signa- 
ture indicates,  on  the  parchment,  a  very  tremu- 
lous hand,  and  is  in  perfect  contrast  to  that  of  the 
President,  John  Hancock ;  this  was  caused  by  a 
nervous  affection,  with  which  he  had  been  for 
many  years  afflicted,  and  which  compelled  him, 
when  he  wrote  at  all,  to  guide  his  right  hand 
with  his  left.  He  discharged  his  public  duties 
with  great  ability  and  faithfulness.  Mr.  Hopkins 
was  one  of  those  strong-minded  men,  who,  by 
indefatigable  personal  effort,  overcome  the  defi- 
ciencies of  early  education.  A  common  country 
school,  at  that  period,  afforded  little  more  than  a 
knowledge  of  reading  and  writing.  Upon  this 
foundation,  Mr.  Hopkins  established  a  character 
for  literature.  It  is  stated  that  he  perused  the 
whole  of  the  great  collection  of  ancient  and  mod- 
ern history,  compiled  about  a  half  century  since, 
by  some  distinguished  scholars  in  Europe,  and 
that  he  also  read  Thurtow's  collection  of  State 
Papers.  As  an  instance  of  the  retentiveness  of 
his  memory,  it  is  mentioned  that  Mr.  Hopkins, 
on  one  occasion,  sat  down  and  made  out  his 
account  as  the  owner  of  a  vessel,  without  any 
reference  whatever  to  his  books,  though  many 
small  items  were  necessarily  included.  He  was 
esteemed  as  an  excellent  mathematician.  He 
was  one  of  the  principal  observers  on  the  cele- 
brated transit  of  Venus  over  the  Sun's  disc,  in 
June,  17G9.  He  was  a  member  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  and  for  many  years,  chan- 
cellor of  the  College  of  Rhode  Island. 


STEPHEN  HOPKINS. 


103 


In  his  personal  and  domestic  character,  he  was 
an  eminent  pattern  of  kindness  and  affability.  A 
visit,  which  Gen.  Washington  made,  unattended, 
to  Gov.  Hopkins,  is  stated,  by  a  living  witness,  to 
have  strongly  exhibited  the  simple,  easy,  and  art- 
less manners  of  those  illustrious  men.  Mr.  Hop- 
kins died  calmly,  on  the  13th  of  July,  1785,  in 
the  79th  year  of  his  age. 


PROFESSOR  LEE. 


Of  the  attainments  and  character  of  this 
extraordinary  man,  we  can  furnish  but  a  very 
imperfect  outline.  Even  the  year  of  his  birth 
we  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain.  His  native 
place  is  Longnor,  a  small  village,  eight  miles  from 
Shrewsbury,  England.  The  only  education  which 
he  received  was  that  of  a  village  school,  where 
nothing  more  was  taught  than  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic.  This  school  he  left  at  twelve 
years  of  age,  to  learn  the  trade  of  a  carpenter 
and  builder,  under  the  care  of  an  ingenious  and 
respectable  relative,  Mr.  Alderman  Lee,  of 
Shrewsbury.  Here  he  underwent  great  hard- 
ships. It  was  not  till  he  was  about  seventeen 
years  of  age  that  he  first  conceived  the  idea  of 
studying  a  foreign  language.  His  application  to 
the  Latin  tongue,  the  first  which  he  acquired, 
originated  in  his  inability  to  understand  that  lan- 
guage, as  quoted  in  English  authors.  Poverty 
obstructed  his  progress,  but  did  not  prevent  it.  A 
thirst  for  information  created  economy ;  and  out 
of  the  scanty  pittance  of  his  weekly  earnings,  he 
purchased,  at  a  book  stall,  a  volume,  which,  when 
read,  was  exchanged  for  another ;  and,  so  by 
degrees,  he  advanced  in  knowledge.  Oppressed 
with  cares,  without  any  living  assistant  whatever, 
without  much  stimulus  either  from  hope  or  fear, 
seeking  concealment  rather  than  the  smile  of 
approbation,  and  very  scantily  supplied  with  the 


PROFESSOR  LEE. 


105 


necessary  materials,  he  still  pressed  on  in  his 
course.  He  had  not  the  privilege  of  balancing 
between  reading  and  relaxation ;  he  had  to  pass 
from  bodily  fatigue  to  mental  exertion.  During 
six  years,  previous  to  his  twenty-fifth  year,  he 
omitted  none  of  the  hours  usually  appropriated  to 
manual  labor;  he  retired  to  rest,  regularly,  at  10 
o'clock  at  night.  He  also  suffered,  during  this 
time,  from  a  disorder  in  his  eyes.  As  his  wages 
increased,  and  thereby  his  abilities  to  make  larger 
purchases,  he  attended  to  the  Greek,  Hebrew, 
Chaldee,  and  Syriac  tongues.  The  loss,  by  fire, 
of  the  tools  of  his  trade,  blasted  his  earthly  pros- 
pects in  that  direction,  and  led  him  to  consider  how 
far  his  literary  acquirements  might  be  employed  for 
the  support  of  himself,  and  of  the  partner  whom 
he  had  recently  married.  His  situation  being 
made  known  to  the  Reverend  Archdeacon  Cor- 
bett,  of  Shrewsbury,  that  liberal  and  enlightened 
clergymen  afforded  him,  not  only  immediate  aid, 
but  a  happier  introduction  to  his  favorite  pursuits. 
He  now  exchanged  his  carpenter's  shop  for  the 
superintendency  of  a  charity  school.  Here,  how- 
ever, his  hours  were  not  much  more  at  his  own 
disposal.  It  was  about  this  time  that  that  well 
known  and  highly  respected  oriental  scholar,  Dr. 
Jonathan  Scott,  Persian  Secretary  to  Hastings, 
Governor  General  of  India,  furnished  Mr.  Lee 
with  an  Arabic  Grammar,  and  he  had  then,  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life,  the  pleasure  of  convers- 
ing upon  the  study  in  which  he  was  engaged ; 
and  it  is  to  this  auspicious  circumstance,  improved, 
as  it  was,  by  the  wonderful  proficiency  of  Mr. 
Lee,  on  the  one  hand,  (for  in  a  few  months,  he 
was  capable  of  reading,  writing,  and  composing 


106 


PROFESSOR  LEE. 


in  both  Arabic  and  Persic,)  and  to  the  unremitting 
kindness  of  Dr.  Scott,  on  the  other,  that  we  may 
attribute  Mr.  Lee's  subsequent  engagement  with 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  as  Orientalist,  his 
admission  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge,  and 
his  ordination  as  a  minister  of  the  Established 
Church.  At  the  age  of  thirty-one  years,  fourteen 
from  the  time  he  had  opened  a  Latin  Grammar, 
he  had  actually  himself  taught  seventeen  different 
languages  ;  viz.  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Chaldee, 
Syriac,  Samaritan,  Arabic,  Persic,  Hindostanee, 
French,  German,  Italian,  Ethiopic,  Coptic,  Malay, 
Sanscrit,  and  Bengalee.  When  Mr.  Lee  entered 
at  Cambridge,  he  was  unacquainted  with  the  mathe- 
matics ;  but  in  one  fortnight,  he  qualified  himself 
to  attend  a  class  which  had  gone  through  several 
books  in  Euclid ;  and  he  soon  after  discovered  an 
error  in  the  Spherical  Trigonometry,  usually 
bound  up  with  Simpson's  Euclid,  the  fourteenth 
proposition  of  which  Mr.  Lee  disproved.  Simp- 
son's Edition  of  Euclid  is  a  text  book  at  both 
Universities,  and  is  the  only  one  usually  put  into 
the  hands  of  students,  and  to  which  the  lectures 
of  the  tutors  apply.  Before  he  went  to  college 
he  was  conversant  with  the  works  of  Plato,  had 
made  translations  into  English  blank  verse  from 
the  works  of  Boethius  ;  and  he  went  through  the 
Golden  Verses,  bearing  the  name  of  Pythagoras. 
He  contented  himself  with  a  competent  knowledge 
of  mathematics,  lest  further  attention  to  that  seduc- 
ing science  should  interfere  with  those  studies  in 
which  the  highest  interests  of  mankind  are 
involved.  He  has  exhibited  a  most  laudable 
desire  to  know  the  word  of  God  himself,  and  to 
impart  it  to  others.  The  following  are  some  of 
his  efforts  for  the  spiritual  good  of  mankind. 


PROFESSOR  LEE. 


107 


The  Syriac  New  Testament,  edited  by  Mr. 
Lee,  and  published,  is  not  a  continuation  of  that 
begun  by  Dr.  Buchanan ;  but  an  entire  new 
work,  for  which  Mr.  Lee  collated  three  ancient 
Syrian  MSS.,  the  Syrian  Commentary  of  Syrius, 
and  the  texts  of  Ridley,  Jones,  and  Wetstein. 

An  edition  of  the  Malay  New  Testament,  from 
the  Dutch  edition  of  1733 ;  the  Old  Testament 
has  since  been  published. 

An  enlarged  and  corrected  edition  of  Mr. 
Martyn's  Hindostanee  Prayer  Book,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Mr.  Corrie. 

A  Tract  translated  into  Persian  and  Arabic,  and 
printed,  entitled  "  The  way  of  Truth  and  Life," 
for  the  use  of  Mohammedans. 

A  Malay  Tract,  for  the  London  Missionary 
Society ;  and  some  Tracts  in  Hindostanee,  for  the 
Society  for  instructing  the  Lascars. 

A  Tract  in  Arabic,  on  the  new  system  of  edu- 
cation, written  by  Dr.  Bell,  and  first  translated 
by  Michael  Sabag,  for  the  Baron  de  Sacy  of  Paris. 

Dr.  Scott  having  translated  the  service  for 
Christmas  day  from  -  the  Prayer  Book  of  the 
Church  of  England,  into  Persic,  Mr.  Lee  has 
added  to  it  the  rest  of  the  Liturgy. 

A  new  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  into 
Persian,  in  conjunction  with  Mirza  Khaleel. 

An  Hindostanee  New  Testament. 

He  was  some  time  since  preparing  an  Ethiopic 
Bible  and  other  works.  Mr.  Lee  has  also  made 
a  new  fount  of  letter  for  Hindostanee  and  Persian 
printing ;  and  a  new  fount  for  an  edition  of  the 
Syriac  Old  Testament,  for  which  he  collated  nine 
ancient  MSS.  and  one  ancient  commentary.  He 
has  also  published  in  Persian  and  English  the 


108 


TROFKSSOR  LEE. 


whole  controversy  of  Mr.  Martyn  with  the  Per- 
sian literati,  with  considerable  additions  of  his 
own. 

On  a  certain  occasion,  a  Memoir  of  Mr.  Henry 
Kirke  White  was  lent  to  him  ;  Mr.  Lee  returned 
it  shortly  after  with  a  Latin  Poem  in  praise  of 
Mr.  White,  a  dialogue  in  Greek  on  the  Christian 
religion,  and  a  pious  effusion  in  Hebrew  ;  all  com- 
piled by  himself,  when  he  was  upon  permanent 
duty  as  a  member  of  the  local  militia  for  the 
county.  He  taught  himself  to  play  upon  the 
flute,  with  almost  intuitive  readiness.  When  the 
Shrewsbury  volunteers  were  raised,  he  qualified 
himself,  with  almost  equal  readiness,  to  be  one  of 
their  military  band,  all  which  time  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  ringing  society,  and  also  gave  lectures 
upon  Gothic  architecture.  He  was  no  sooner  in 
holy  orders  than  he  accepted  invitations  to  preach 
to  the  largest  congregations.  He  manifested  in 
the  pulpit  the  ease  and  self-possession  of  one  long 
used  to  the  station.  Notwithstanding  these  high 
attainments,  he  is  a  very  humble  and  unassuming 
man.  The  resources  of  his  mind  are  unapparent 
till  called  out.  He  does  not  seek  refined  society, 
but  mingles  in  it,  when  invited,  without  effort  or 
embarrassment  ;  and  without  losing  any  of  his 
humility,  sustains  his  place  in  it  with  ease  and 
independence.  His  sermons  are  said  to  exhibit 
an  air  of  logical  dryness,  unfavorable  to  the 
unction  which  should  pervade  pulpit  exercises. 

Sometime  in  the  year  1819,  on  the  resignation 
of  Rev.  J.  Palmer,  Mr.  Lee  was  elected  Pro- 
fessor of  Arabic  in  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
and  not  having  been  at  college  the  usual  time  for 


PROFESSOR  LEE. 


109 


taking  the  degree  requisite  to  standing  for  the 
chair,  a  grace  passed  the  senate  of  the  University 
to  supplicate  for  a  mandamus,  which  was  granted 
by  his  Majesty.  Most  honorable  and  ample  testi- 
monials were  given  by  Lord  Teignmouth,  Dr. 
Scott,  Mohammed  Sheeraz,  a  learned  Persian, 
Alexander  Nicol,  librarian  of  the  Bodleian  library, 
Oxford,  Mirza  Khaleel,  a  learned  Persian,  Dr. 
Wilkins,  of  the  East  India-house  Library,  and 
others.  Mr.  Lee  has  lately  been  chosen  to  suc- 
ceed Dr.  Lloyd,  as  Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew 
at  Cambridge.  He  has  published  one  edition  of 
an  Hebrew  Grammar,  and  has  another  in  the 
press,  as  also  an  Hebrew  Lexicon.  A  work  on 
the  interpretation  of  Scripture  generally,  and  of 
prophecy  in  particular,  has  lately  appeared  from 
his  pen.  He  has  issued  a  prospectus  of  an 
extensive  course  of  lectures  on  Hebrew  Litera- 
ture and  Philology. 


10 


WILLIAM  GIFFOKD. 


"William  Gifford  wa3  born  in  Ashburton, 
Devonshire,  England,  in  April,  1757.  His  father 
was  a  seaman,  and  was,  for  some  time,  engaged 
in  the  service  of  his  country,  as  the  second 
in  command  of  a  large  armed  transport.  His 
manner  of  life  was  very  dissipated.  An  attempt 
to  excite  a  riot  in  a  Methodist  chapel  was  the 
occasion  of  his  being  compelled  to  flee  from  the 
country.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a 
carpenter.  Her  resources  were  very  scanty* 
They  arose  from  the  rent  of  three  or  four  small 
fields,  which  had  belonged  to  her  husband's  father. 
"  With  these,  however/'  says  GifTord,  "  she  dkl 
what  she  could  for  me ;  and  as  soon  as  I  was  old 
enough  to  be  trusted  out  of  her  sight,  sent  me  to 
a  schoolmistress  of  the  name  of  Parret,  from 
whom,  in  due  time,  I  learned  to  read.  I  cannot 
boast  much  of  my  acquisitions  at  this  school  j 
they  consisted  merely  of  the  contents  of  the 
4  Child's  Spelling  Book;'  but  from  my  mother, 
who  had  stored  up  the  literature  of  a  country 
town,  —  which  about  half  a  centuary  ago,  amount- 
ed to  little  more  than  what  was  disseminated  by 
itinerant  ballad  singers,  or  rather  readers,  —  I  had 
acquired  much  curious  knowledge  of  Catskin,  and 
the  Golden  Bull,  and  the  Bloody  Gardener,  and 
many  other  histories  equally  instructive  and 
amusing."  Young  Gifford's  father  returned  from 
sea  in  1764.    He  had  acquired  considerable  prop- 


WILLIAM  GLFFOHD. 


Ill 


erty,  but  his  habits  of  dissipation  were  such  that  he 
soon  lost  nearly  the  whole  of  it.  He  commenced 
business  as  a  glazier  and  house-painter.  William, 
now  about  eight  years  old,  was  put  to  a  free 
school,  to  learn  to  read  and  write  and  cypher. 
Here  he  continued  three  years,  "making  most 
wretched  progress,"  when  his  father  fell  sick  and 
died.  He  died  of  a  ruined  constitution,  induced 
by  habits  of  drinking.  Unfortunately,  the  mother 
of  William,  in  order  to  support  her  two  children, 
determined  to  prosecute  her  husband's  business ; 
for  which  purpose  she  engaged  a  couple  of  jour- 
neymen, who,  finding  her  ignorant  of  every  part 
of  it,  wasted  her  property  and  embezzled  her 
money.  What  the  consequence  of  this  double 
fraud  would  have  been,  there  is  no  opportunity  of 
knowing,  as,  in  somewhat  less  than  a  twelvemonth, 
she  followed  her  husband  to  the  grave.  "  She 
was,"  says  her  affectionate  son,  "  an  excellent 
woman,  bore  my  father's  infirmities  with  patience 
and  good  humor,  loved  her  children  dearly,  and 
died  at  last,  exhausted  with  anxiety  and  grief, 
more  on  their  account  than  on  her  own." 

"  I  was  not  quite  thirteen  when  this  happened  ; 
my  little  brother  was  hardly  two  ;  and  we  had  not 
a  relation  nor  a  friend  in  the  world."  His  brother 
was  now  sent  to  the  work-house,  and  he  was  him- 
self taken  home  to  the  house  of  a  person  named 
Carlile,  who  was  his  godfather,  and  had  seized 
upon  whatever  his  mother  had  left,  under  the  pre- 
tence of  repaying  himself  for  money  which  he 
had  advanced  to  her.  By  this  person,  William, 
who  had  before  learned  reading,  writing,  and  a 
little  arithmetic,  was  sent  again  to  school,  and 
was  beginning  to  make  considerable  progress  in 


112 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


the  last  branch  of  study ;  but  in  about  three 
months  his  patron  grew  tired  of  the  expense,  and 
took  him  home  with  the  view  of  employing  him 
as  a  ploughboy.  An  injury,  however,  which  he 
had  received  some  years  before,  on  his  breast, 
was  found  to  unfit  him  for  this  species  of  labor  ; 
and  it  was  next  resolved  that  he  should  be  sent 
out  to  Newfoundland,  to  assist  in  a  storehouse. 
But  upon  being  presented  to  the  person  who  had 
agreed  to  fit  him  out,  he  was  declared  to  be  "  too 
small "  —  and  this  scheme  had  also  to  be  aban- 
doned. "My  godfather,"  says  he,  "had  now 
humbler  views  for  me,  and  I  had  little  heart  to 
resist  anything.  He  proposed  to  send  me  on 
board  one  of  the  Torbay  fishing  boats.  I  ven- 
tured, however,  to  remonstrate  against  this,  and 
the  matter  was  compromised,  by  my  consenting  to 
go  on  board  a  coaster.  A  coaster  was  speedily 
found  for  me  at  Brixham,  and  thither  I  went, 
when  a  little  more  than  thirteen." 

In  this  vessel  he  remained  for  nearly  a  twelve- 
month. "  It  will  be  easily  conceived,"  he  remarks, 
"  that  my  life  was  a  life  of  hardship.  I  was  not 
only  a  ship-boy  on  the  '  high  and  giddy  mast,'  but 
also  in  the  cabin,  where  every  menial  office  fell  to 
my  lot ;  yet,  if  I  was  restless  and  discontented,  I 
can  safely  say  it  was  not  so  much  on  account  of  this, 
as  my  being  precluded  from  all  possibility  of  read- 
ing ;  as  my  master  did  not  possess,  nor  do  I  recol- 
lect seeing,  during  the  whole  time  of  my  abode 
with  him,  a  single  book  of  any  description,  except 
the  '  Coasting  Pilot.'  " 

While  in  this  humble  situation,  however,  and 
seeming  to  himself  almost  an  outcast  from  the 
world,  he  was  not  altogether  forgotten.    He  had 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


113 


broken  off  all  connection  with  Ashburton,  and 
where  his  godfather  lived ;  but  the  "  women  of 
Brixham,"  says  he,  "  who  travelled  to  Ashburton 
twice  a  week  with  fish,  and  who  had  known  my 
parents,  did  not  see  me  without  kind  concern, 
running  about  the  beach  in  a  ragged  jacket  and 
trowsers."  They  often  mentioned  him  to  their 
acquaintances  at  Ashburton,  and  the  tale  excited 
so  much  commiseration  in  the  place,  that  his  god- 
father at  last  found  himself  obliged  to  send  for 
him  home.  At  this  time  he  wanted  some  months 
of  fourteen. 

"  After  the  holidays,"  continues  the  narrative, 
"  I  returried  to  my  darling  pursuit  —  arithmetic  ; 
my  progress  was  now  so  rapid,  that  in  a  few 
months  I  was  at  the  head  of  the  school,  and  qual- 
ified to  assist  my  master,  Mr.  E.  Furlong,  on  any 
extraordinary  occasion.  As  he  usually  gave  me 
a  trifle,  at  such  times,  it  raised  a  thought  in  me 
that,  by  engaging  with  him  as  a  regular  assistant, 
and  undertaking  the  instruction  of  a  few  evening 
scholars,  I  might,  with  a  little  additional  aid,  be 
enabled  to  support  myself.  I  had  besides  another 
object  in  view.  Mr.  Hugh  Smerdon,  my  first 
master,  was  now  grown  old  and  infirm ;  it  seemed 
unlikely  that  he  should  hold  out  above  three  or 
four  years ;  and  I  fondly  flattered  myself  that, 
notwithstanding  my  youth,  I  might  possibly  be 
appointed  to  succeed  him.  I  was  in  my  fifteenth 
year  when  I  built  these  castles  ;  a  storm,  however, 
was  collecting,  which  unexpectedly  burst  upon  me, 
and  swept  them  all  away. 

"  On  mentioning  my  little  plan  to  Carlile,  he 
treated  it  with  the  utmost  contempt;  and  told 
me,  in  his  turn,  that,  as  I  had  learned  enough, 
10* 


114 


"WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


and  more  than  enough  at  school,  he  must  be  con- 
sidered as  having  fairly  discharged  his  duty  (so 
indeed  he  had)  ;  he  added,  that  he  had  been 
negociating  with  his  cousin,  a  shoemaker  of  some 
respectability,  who  had  liberally  agreed  to  take 
me  without  fee,  as  an  apprentice.  I  was  so 
shocked  at  this  intelligence,  that  I  did  not  remon- 
strate ;  but  went  in  sullenness  and  silence,  to  my 
new  master,  to  whom,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1772, 
I  was  bound  till  I  should  attain  the  age  of 
twenty-one." 

Up  to  this  period  his  reading  had  been  very 
limited ;  the  only  books  he  had  perused,  beside 
the  Bible,  with  which  he  was  well  acquainted, 
having  been  a  black  letter  romance  called  Paris- 
mus  and  Parismenes,  a  few  old  magazines,  and 
the  Imitation  of  Thomas  a  Kempis.  "  As  I  hated 
my  new  profession,"  he  continues,  "  with  a  perfect 
hatred,  I  made  no  progress  in  it,  and  was  conse- 
quently little  regarded  in  the  family,  of  which 
I  sank,  by  degrees,  into  the  common  drudge; 
this  did  not  much  disquiet  me,  for  my  spirits  were 
now  humbled.  I  did  not,  however,  quite  resign 
my  hope  of  one  day  succeeding  to  Mr.  Hugh 
Smerdon,  and  therefore  secretly  prosecuted  my 
favorite  study,  at  every  interval  of  leisure. 
These  intervals  were  not  very  frequent;  and  when 
the  use  I  made  of  them  was  found  out,  they  were 
rendered  still  less  so.  I  could  not  guess  the  mo- 
tives for  this  at  first,  but  at  length  I  discovered 
that  my  master  destined  his  youngest  son  for  the 
situation  to  which  I  aspired. 

"  I  possessed,  at  this  time,  but  one  book  in  the 
world ;  it  was  a  treatise  on  algebra,  given  to  me 
by  a  young  woman  who  had  found  it  in  a  lodging- 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


115 


house.  I  considered  it  as  a  treasure  ;  but  it  was 
a  treasure  locked  up  ;  for  it  supposed  the  reader 
to  be  well  acquainted  with  simple  equations,  and 
I  knew  nothing  of  the  matter.  My  master's  son 
had  purchased  'Fenning's  Introduction  ; '  this  was 
precisely  what  I  wanted  —  but  he  carefully  con- 
cealed it  from  me,  and  I  was  indebted  to  chance 
alone  for  stumbling  upon  his  hiding  place.  I  sat 
up  for  the  greatest  part  of  several  nights  succes- 
sively, and,  before  that  he  suspected  that  his 
treatise  was  discovered,  had  completely  mastered 
it;  I  could  now  enter  upon  my  own,  and  that 
carried  me  pretty  far  into  the  science.  This  was 
not  done  without  difficulty.  I  had  not  a  farthing 
on  earth,  nor  a  friend  to  give  me  one ;  pen,  ink, 
and  paper,  therefore,  (in  despite  of  the  flippant 
remark  of  Lord  Orford,)  were  for  the  most  part 
as  completely  out  of  my  reach,  as  a  crown  and 
sceptre.  There  was,  indeed,  a  resource  ;  but  the 
utmost  caution  and  secrecy  were  necessary  in 
applying  to  it.  I  beat  out  pieces  of  leather  as 
smooth  as  possible,  and  wrought  my  problems  on 
them  with  a  blunted  awl ;  for  the  rest,  my  memory 
was  tenacious,  and  I  could  multiply  and  divide  by 
it  to  a  great  extent." 

No  situation,  it  is  obvious,  could  be  more  unfa- 
vorable for  study  than  this  ;  and  yet  we  see  how 
the  eager  student  succeeded  in  triumphing  over 
its  disadvantages,  contriving  to  write  and  calculate 
even  without  paper,  pens,  or  ink,  by  the  aid  of  a 
piece  of  leather  and  a  blunted  awl.  Where  there 
is  a  strong  determination  to  attain  an  object,  it  is 
generally  sufficient  of  itself  to  create  the  means  ; 
and  almost  any  means  are  sufficient. 

At  last,  however,  Gilford  obtained  some  allevia- 


116 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


tion  of  his  extreme  poverty.  He  had  scarcely, 
he  tells  us,  known  poetry  even  by  name,  when 
some  verses,  composed  by  one  of  his  acquaint- 
ances, tempted  him  to  try  what  he  could  do  in 
the  same  style,  and  he  succeeded  in  producing  a 
few  rhymes.  As  successive  little  incidents  in- 
spired his  humble  muse,  he  produced  several  more 
compositions  of  a  similar  description,  till  he  had 
collected  about  a  dozen  of  them.  "  Certainly," 
says  he,  "  nothing  on  earth  was  ever  so  deplora- 
ble ;  "  but  such  as  they  were,  they  procured  him 
not  a  little  fame  among  his  associates,  and  he  began 
at  last  to  be  invited  to  repeat  them  in  other  circles. 
"  The  repetitions  of  which  I  speak,"  he  continues, 
"  were  always  attended  with  applause,  and  some- 
times with  favors  more  substantial ;  little  collec- 
tions were  now  and  then  made,  and  I  have  received 
sixpence  in  an  evening.  To  one  who  had  long 
lived  in  the  absolute  want  of  money,  such  a  re- 
source seemed  a  Peruvian  mine.  I  furnished 
myself,  by  degrees,  with  paper  &c,  and  what  was 
of  more  importance,  with  books  of  geometry,  and 
of  the  higher  branches  of  algebra,  which  I  cau- 
tiously concealed.  Poetry,  even  at  this  time,  was 
no  amusement  of  mine ;  it  was  subservient  to  other 
purposes  ;  and  I  only  had  recourse  to  it  when 
I  wanted  money  for  my  mathematical  pursuits." 

But  even  this  resource  was  soon  taken  from 
him.  His  master,  having  heard  of  his  verse- 
making,  wras  so  incensed  both  at  what  he  deemed 
the  idleness  of  the  occupation,  and  especially  at 
some  satirical  allusions  to  himself,  or  his  custom- 
ers, upon  which  the  young  poet  had  unwisely 
ventured,  that  he  seized  and  carried  away  all  his 
books  and  papers,  and  even  prohibited  him,  in  the 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


117 


strictest  manner,  from  ever  again  repeating  a  line 
of  his  compositions.  This  severe  stroke  was 
followed  by  another,  which  reduced  him  to  utter 
despair.  The  master  of  the  free  school,  to  which 
he  had  never  given  up  the  hope  of  succeeding, 
died,  and  another  person  was  appointed  to  the 
situation,  not  much  older  than  Gifford,  and  who, 
he  says,  was  certainly  not  so  well  qualified  for  it  as 
himself.  "  I  look  back,"  he  proceeds,  "  on  that  part 
of  my  life  which  immediately  followed  this  event, 
with  little  satisfaction ;  it  was  a  period  of  gloom 
and  savage  unsociability  ;  by  degrees  I  sunk  into 
a  kind  of  corporeal  torpor ;  or,  if  roused  into 
activity  by  the  spirit  of  youth,  wasted  the  exer- 
tion in  splenetic  and  vexatious  tricks,  which 
alienated  the  few  acquaintances  which  compassion 
had  yet  left  me." 

His  discontent  and  peevishness  seem,  however, 
to  have  gradually  given  way  to  the  natural  buoy- 
ancy of  his  disposition ;  some  evidences  of  kindly 
feeling  from  those  around  him  tended  a  good  deal 
to  dispel  his  gloom ;  and,  especially,  as  the  term 
of  his  apprenticeship  drew  towards  a  close,  his 
former  aspirations  and  hopes  began  to  return 
to  him.  He  had  spent,  however,  nearly  six  years 
at  his  uncongenial  employment  before  any  decided 
prospect  of  deliverance  opened  before  him.  "  In 
this  humble  and  obscure  state,"  says  he,  "  poor 
beyond  the  common  lot,  yet  flattering  my  ambition 
with  day-dreams  which  perhaps  would  never  have 
been  realized,  I  was  found,  in  the  twentieth  year 
of  my  age,  by  Mr.  William  Cookesley  —  a  name 
never  to  be  pronounced  by  me  without  veneration. 
The  lamentable  doggerel  which  I  have  already 
mentioned,  and  which  had  passed  from  mouth  to 


lis 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


mouth  among  people  of  my  own  degree  had,  by 
some  accident  or  other,  reached  his  ear,  and  given 
him  a  curiosity  to  inquire  after  the  author."  Mr. 
Cookesley,  who  was  a  surgeon,  and  not  rich, 
having  learnt  Gifford's  history  from  himself, 
became  so  much  interested  in  his  favor,  that  he 
determined  to  rescue  him  from  his  obscurity. 

"  The  plan,"  says  Gifford,  "  that  occurred  to 
him  was  naturally  that  which  had  so  often  sug- 
gested itself  to  me.  There  were,  indeed,  several 
obstacles  to  be  overcome.  My  hand-writing  was 
bad,  and  my  language  very  incorrect ;  but  nothing 
could  slacken  the  zeal  of  this  excellent  man.  He 
procured  a  few  of  my  poor  attempts  at  rhyme, 
dispersed  them  among  his  friends  and  acquaint- 
ance, and,  when  my  name  was  become  somewhat 
familiar  to  them,  set  on  foot  a  subscription  for  my 
relief.  I  still  preserve  the  original  paper;  its 
title  was  not  very  magnificent,  though  it  exceeded 
the  most  sanguine  wishes  of  my  heart.  It  ran 
thus :  "  A  subscription  for  purchasing  the  re- 
mainder of  the  time  of  William  Gifford,  and  for 
enabling  him  to  improve  himself  in  writing  and 
English  grammar.'  Few  contributed  more  than 
five  shillings,  and  none  went  beyond  ten  and  six- 
pence, —  enough  was  however  collected  to  free 
me  from  my  apprenticeship,  (the  sum  my  master 
received  was  six  pounds,)  and  maintained  me  for 
a  few  months,  during  which  I  assiduously  attended 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Smerdon." 

The  difficulties  of  the  poor  scholar  were  now 
over,  for  his  patrons  were  so  much  pleased  with 
the  progress  he  made  during  this  short  period, 
that  upon  its  expiration  they  renewed  their  bounty, 
and  maintained  him  at  school  for  another  year. 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


119 


u  Such  liberality,"  he  remarks,  "  was  not  lost  upon 
me ;  I  grew  anxious  to  make  the  best  return  in 
my  power,  and  I  redoubled  my  diligence.  Now, 
that  I  am  sunk  into  indolence,  I  look  back  with 
some  degree  of  skepticism  to  the  exertions  of  that 
period."  In  two  years  and  two  months  from 
what  he  calls  the  day  of  his  emancipation,  he  was 
pronounced  by  his  master  to  be  fit  for  the  univer- 
sity ;  and  a  small  office  having  been  obtained  for 
him,  by  Mr.  Cookesley's  exertions  at  Oxford,  he 
was  entered  of  Exeter  college,  that  gentleman 
undertaking  to  provide  the  additional  means 
necessary  to  enable  him  to  live  till  he  should  take 
his  degree.  Mr.  Gilford's  first  patron  died  before 
his  protege  had  time  to  fulfil  the  good  man's  fond 
anticipations  of  his  future  celebrity ;  but  he  after- 
wards found  in  Lord  Grosvenor,  another  much 
more  able  friend,  though  it  was  impossible  that 
any  other  man  could  have  shown  more  zeal  in 
advancing  his  interests.  A  long  and  prosperous 
life  was  an  ample  compensation  for  the  toils  and 
hardships  of  his  youth.  While  at  the  university, 
he  undertook  a  poetical  translation  of  the  satires 
of  Juvenal,  but  which  was  not  published  till 
several  years  afterwards.  It  is  highly  creditable 
to  his  ability  as  a  satirist  and  critic.  After  leav- 
ing Oxford,  he  travelled  on  the  continent  for  some 
years,  with  Lord  Belgrave.  On  his  return,  he 
settled  in  London,  and  devoted  himself  to  literary 
pursuits.  In  1791,  he  published  The  Baviad,  a 
poetical  satire;  and,  in  1794,  The  Maeviad,  a 
severe  animadversion  on  the  degraded  state  of  the 
drama.  These  works  were  virulent  and  coarse, 
but  display  much  critical  power*  In  1797,  he 
became  editor  of  the  Anti-Jacobin  newspaper. 


120 


WILLIAM  GIFFORD. 


He  soon  published  an  edition  of  the  plays  of 
Massinger ;  afterwards  the  plays  of  Ben  Jonson, 
Ford  and  Shirley,  —  all  accompanied  with  notes, 
and  with  the  lives  of  the  dramatists.  In  1809, 
he  commenced  the  publication  of  the  Quarterly 
Review,  in  opposition  to  the  Edinburgh.  He 
conducted  it  till  1824,  when  the  infirmities  of  age 
compelled  him  to  retire.  He  was  the  writer  of 
many  of  the  articles  in  this  Review,  and  generally 
performed  his  work  with  great  judgment  and 
ability.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  been  want- 
ing in  candor  and  liberal  feeling.  Probably 
the  circumstances  of  his  early  youth,  as  well  as 
his  connection  with  the  tory  party  in  politics,  and 
the  high  church  party  in  religion,  will  account  for 
the  harshness  and  ungenerousness  of  some  articles, 
which  appeared  in  his  Review,  in  relation  to  the 
United  States.  If  he  had  kind  feelings,  they 
certainly  forsook  him  when  the  religion  and  liter- 
ature of  this  country  came  before  his  considera- 
tion. Mr.  Gifford  was  thorougly  a  literary  man. 
Besides  the  works  already  mentioned,  he  was 
author  of  a  translation  of  the  Satires  of  Persius. 
He  enjoyed  an  annuity  from  Lord  Grosvenor, 
and  held  the  office  of  paymaster  of  the  board  of 
gentlemen-pensioners,  with  a  salary  of  £300  a 
year.  He  was  also,  for  a  time,  comptroller  of  the 
lottery,  with  a  salary  of  £600  a  year.  His  death 
took  place  at  his  residence  near  London,  Decem- 
ber 31,  1826,  and  he  was  interred  on  the  8th  of 
January  following,  in  Westminster  Abbey.  He 
had  no  family.  He  left  the  greater  part  of  his 
fortune  to  the  son  of  his  first  kind  and  most  dis- 
interested patron,  Mr.  Cookesley. 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 

Among  the  most  numerous  and  prosperous  of  the 
Christian  denominations  in  this  country,  are  the 
Calvinistic  Baptists.  In  numerical  strength  they 
are  superior  to  any  other  division  of  the  church, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Methodists.  Their 
growth,  especially  in  some  of  the  more  recently 
settled  portions  of  the  country,  has  been  extreme- 
ly rapid.  This  prosperity  has  been  owing  very 
much  to  the  energy  and  wisdom  of  a  few  individ- 
uals. The  Baptists  have  not,  to  a  great  extent, 
placed  their  reliance  upon  associated  effort ;  their 
organization,  as  a  denomination,  is  far  less  com- 
plete than  that  of  any  other.  Their  churches 
have  exhibited,  perhaps,  more  conspicuously  even 
than  the  Congregational,  the  republican,  or  rather 
democratic  principles  of  equality  of  rights  and 
community  of  privileges.  Such  a  state  of  things 
is  eminently  calculated  to  bring  out  individual 
effort,  to  cherish  and  develop  personal  character. 
Men  must  have  a  rallying  point.  Scattered  talent 
must  have  a  place  of  convergence.  Nothing 
important  can  be  accomplished  in  morals  and  re- 
ligion, any  more  than  in  war  and  politics,  without 
leaders.  If  there  be  no  organization  on  which  to 
recline,  some  master-spirit  will  arise.  If  there  be 
no  marshalled  host,  the  people  will  flock  to  David 
in  the  wilderness.  If  there  be  no  college  or  theo- 
logical seminary,  to  concentrate  public  attention 
and  discipline  collected  talent,  some  patriarch  will 
11 


122 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


draw  around  his  tent  the  sons  of  science  or  the 
disciples  of  Jesus. 

Such  have  been,  in  the  Baptist  community, 
"Williams,  Backus,  Stillman  and  Baldwin.  With 
great  and  striking  difference  as  to  talent  and  ac- 
quirement, each  of  those  men  attained  a  distin- 
guished rank  and  exerted  an  extensive  and  an 
enduring  influence.  Upon  each  devolved  the 
care,  not  simply  of  a  church  or  congregation,  but, 
in  an  important  sense,  the  care  of  all  the  churches 
in  the  connection.  With  no  theological  seminary, 
and  with  not  more  than  one  college,  the  last  three 
named,  particularly,  labored  to  supply,  so  far  as 
unwearied  personal  effort  could  do  it,  the  ac- 
knowledged deficiency. 

Thomas  Baldwin  was  born  in  Bozrah,  in  the 
State  of  Connecticut,  December  23,  1753,  and 
was  the  only  son  of  Thomas  and  Mary  Baldwin, 
both  natives  of  the  same  place.  Of  the  early  his- 
tory of  his  family  but  little  is  known.  It  may, 
however,  be  observed,  that  his  father  was  attached 
to  the  military  service,  and  rose  to  distinction  in 
the  then  colonial  army.  He  died  while  his  son 
was  a  youth.  His  mother  was  a  woman  of  talent 
and  piety,  and  to  her  faithful  and  affectionate  in- 
structions her  son  was  greatly  indebted. 

Not  much  is  known  of  his  early  history.  The 
traits  of  character  for  which  he  was  in  manhood 
remarkable,  were,  however,  very  early  developed. 
From  infancy  his  temper  was  noticed  for  its  un- 
ruffled serenity.  His  mother  used  to  observe  that 
she  never  knew  him,  but  in  a  single  instance,  to 
betray  any  signs  of  impatience  ;  and  when,  on  this 
occasion,  she  expressed  her  surprise,  he  instantly 
replied,  "  Mother,  I  am  not  angry." 


THOMAS  BALDWIN.  123 


He  very  early  discovered  a  taste  for  reading. 
Not  only  did  he  devote  -every  leisure  moment  to 
the  improvement  of  his  mind,  but  also  consecrated 
to  this  object  the  hours  of  labor.  Whenever  his 
employments  were  of  such  a  nature  that  one  of 
his  hands  was  disengaged,  it  was  occupied  with  a 
book.  By  these  habits  of  incessant  application, 
he  very  early  acquired  a  stock  of  valuable  though 
miscellaneous  information,  which,  combined  with 
strong  powers  of  original  thinking,  seemed  in  youth 
to  mark  him  out  for  distinguished  usefulness. 

At  that  time  the  advantages  of  education  were 
much  less  extensively  enjoyed  in  New  England 
than  at  present.  Schools  were  very  rare,  and  the 
general  modes  of  instruction  palpably  defective. 
As  a  proof  of  this  it  need  only  be  remarked,  that 
when  Mr.  Baldwin  removed  to  Canaan,  N.  H., 
where  he  afterwards  resided,  he  was  generally 
selected  on  the  Sabbath  to  read  a  sermon  to  the 
people,  who  assembled  for  public  worship,  because 
he  was  the  only  young  man  in  the  town  who  was 
sufficiently  educated  to  perform  this  service  ac- 
ceptably. The  mention  of  this  fact  is  sufficient 
to  show  how  strong  must  be  his  early  bias  towards 
intellectual  improvement. 

When  Mr.  Baldwin  was  about  sixteen  years  of 
age,  his  mother,  who  was  now  a  second  time  mar- 
ried to  a  very  worthy  and  pious  man  by  the  name 
of  Eames,  removed  to  Canaan,  New  Hampshire. 
He  removed  with  the  family ;  and  this  became, 
for  several  years,  the  place  of  his  residence.  In 
September,  1775,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Ruth 
Huntington,  of  Norwich,  Connecticut.  Before  he 
was  thirty  years  of  age,  Mr.  Baldwin  was  elected 
to  represent  the  town  of  Canaan  in  the  General 


124 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


Court  of  the  State.  To  this  office  he  was  repeat- 
edly reelected. 

In  the  year  1780,  an  interesting  change  took 
place  in  the  character  of  Mr.  Baldwin.  After  a 
season  of  deep  religious  anxiety  he  was  enabled 
joyfully  to  devote  himself  to  the  service  of  his 
Redeemer.  His  views  of  truth  were  clear  and 
impressive;  his  sense  of  the  evil  of  sin  and  of 
the  purity  of  God's  law,  were  such  as  to  lead  him 
to  deep  humiliation,  and  to  an  entire  and  cordial 
reliance  on  the  mediation  and  atonement  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Of  this  period  of  mental  so- 
licitude, Mr.  Baldwin  has  left  an  interesting  and 
particular  memoir.  Mr.  Baldwin  was  educated 
in  the  principles  of  the  Congregationalists,  but 
about  this  time,  after  much  deliberation,  he  united 
himself  to  the  Baptists.  He  was  ordained  as  an 
evangelist,  in  June,  1783.  The  following  extracts 
from  his  journal,  show  his  spirit  and  manner  of 
life.  "  I  continued  my  labors  with  the  church  in 
Canaan  seven  years,  during  which  time,  though 
principally  at  home  on  the  Sabbath,  I  spent  much 
of  the  intervening  time  in  visiting  and  preaching 
in  the  destitute  parts  of  the  surrounding  country. 
There  were  few  towns  within  the  space  of  fifty 
miles  round,  in  which  I  did  not  occasionally 
preach.  In  this  warfare  I  went  chiefly  at  my 
own  charges.  Some  few  churches,  however,  which 
I  visited  by  appointment  of  the  Association,  made 
me  some  compensation,  and  some  individuals  made 
me  small  presents;  but  I  do  not  recollect  that, 
during  the  whole  of  this  period,  in  all  my  journey- 
ings,  I  ever  received  a  public  contribution.  My 
mode  of  travelling  was  on  horseback.  In  pur- 
suing my  appointments,  I  had  often  to  climb  the 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


125 


rugged  mountain  and  descend  the  deep  ravine. 
These  exchanges  from  rocky  steeps  to  dismal 
swamps  were  far  from  unfrequent  at  that  early- 
period  of  the  settlement  of  this  part  of  our  country. 
The  roads  are  since  so  improved,  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  persuade  the  traveller,  now-a-days,  that 
they  have  ever  been  so  bad  as  the  early  settlers 
represent.  The  people  were  not,  however,  so  much 
wanting  in  kindness  as  in  the  means  of  assisting  a 
travelling  minister.  As  for  silver  and  gold,  the 
greater  part  of  them  had  none.  The  cause  of  this 
scarcity  of  money  arose  from  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  times.  At  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  the  continental  currency,  which  had 
before  depreciated  to  almost  nothing,  ceased.  The 
little  silver  that  remained  in  the  coffers  of  the  rich 
was,  with  much  reluctance,  permitted  to  be  drawn 
from  its  long  sequestered  concealment.  It  hence 
often  happened  that  the  travelling  preacher  must 
either  beg  or  go  hungry,  if  he  happened  to  travel 
where  he  was  not  known." 

On  one  occasion,  in  March,  1790,  Mr.  Baldwin 
was  called  to  visit  a  remote  part  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, about  one  hundred  miles  distant,  to  assist  in 
the  establishment  of  a  church.  He  left  home  with 
only  a  few  shillings,  but  before  the  first  night  the 
whole  was  lost.  The  journey  was  chiefly  through 
a  wilderness,  with  a  few  log-cottages  to  relieve 
the  solitude  of  the  gloomy  forest.  The  snow  was 
more  than  three  feet  deep,  and  the  travelling  was, 
consequently,  very  difficult  and  dangerous.  At 
length  Mr.  Baldwin  and  his  friends  reached  home 
in  safety,  after  having  subsisted  on  such  casual 
entertainment  as  they  could  procure  in  the  wil- 
derness. 

11* 


126 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


During  the  seven  years  which  he  passed  in 
Canaan,  the  whole  of  his  salary  would  not  average 
forty  dollars  a  year !  "  Hence,"  says  Mr.  Baldwin, 
"  I  may  say  with  the  apostle,  '  These  hands  have 
ministered  to  my  necessities,  and  those  that  were 
with  me.'  I  would  gladly  have  devoted  myself 
wholly  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  could  I  have 
seen  any  way  in  which  my  family  might  have 
been  supported." 

In  the  year  1790,  Mr.  Baldwin  received  a 
unanimous  invitation  to  settle  in  the  ministry  from 
Sturbridge,  Mass.,  Hampton,  Conn.,  and  from  the 
Second  Baptist  Church  hi  Boston.  He  was  in- 
stalled over  the  latter  church  in  November,  1790. 
This  removal  brought  him  into  an  almost  entirely 
new  sphere  of  action.  From  the  frontier  settle- 
ments of  New  Hampshire,  he  was  removed  to  the 
centre  of  polished  and  literary  society  in  New 
England,  and  placed  by  the  side  of  such  men  as 
the  Rev.  Drs.  Lathrop,  Eliot,  Howard,  Belknap 
and  Thacher,  of  the  Congregational  churches,  and 
of  the  excellent  Dr.  Stillman,  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church ;  several  of  whom  were  eminent  and  fin- 
ished classical  scholars.  The  pulpits  of  Boston 
•were,  perhaps,  never  more  ably  filled. 

These  circumstances  added  a  powerful  stimulus 
to  Mr.  Baldwin's  efforts,  and,  in  fact,  created  a 
new  era  in  his  life.  His  early  advantages  for 
education,  as  has  been  seen,  were  but  scanty. 
Constant  labor  had  left  him  but  little  opportunity 
to  improve  them.  He  was  now  thirty-eight  years 
of  age ;  a  time  of  life  beyond  which  men  do  not 
generally  make  great  advancement  in  knowledge. 
Says  his  biographer,  "All  the  resources  upon 
which,  depending  on  the  grace  of  God,  he  could 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


127 


rely  in  this  arduous  situation,  were  sincere  desires 
to  be  useful,  native  vigor  of  mind,  a  fixed  resolu- 
tion to  prepare  himself  for  the  duties  to  which 
Providence  called  him,  a  considerable  store  of 
sound  reflection  on  theology,  and  knowledge  of 
human  nature."  He  saw  his  deficiencies,  and 
gave  himself  to  his  work  with  great  and  unrelax- 
ing  diligence.  He  commenced  a  course  of  judi- 
cious theological  and  critical  study,  which  enabled 
him  better  to  serve  the  church  in  the  pulpit,  and 
more  extensively  to  illustrate  and  defend  her  doc- 
trines from  the  press.  The  standard  of  preaching 
rose  in  his  own  denomination  every  where  around 
him.  He  assisted  his  younger  brethren  in  their 
attempts  to  acquire  the  advantages  of  education. 
He  set  before  them  an  example  of  simple,  un- 
affected piety. 

In  1803,  Mr.  Baldwin  commenced  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Massachusetts  Baptist  Magazine, 
(afterwards  the  American  Baptist  Magazine.) 
From  its  commencement  to  the  year  1817,  he 
was  its  sole  editor,  and  from  1817  to  his  death  he 
was  the  senior  editor.  For  many  years  this  was 
the  only  Baptist  religious  periodical  in  America. 
To  its  influence,  and  to  the  labors  of  Mr.  Baldwin, 
by  its  means,  may  be  ascribed,  in  a  considerable 
degree,  the  progress  which  has  been  made  in  his 
own  denomination  in  acquaintance  with  each  other, 
in  missionary  enterprise,  and  religious  knowledge. 
In  1802,  he  was  appointed  to  deliver  the  annual 
sermon  before  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  on 
the  day  of  General  Election.  Three  editions  of 
this  discourse  were  published.  It  was  pronounced 
by  the  American  Review  an  -able  and  interesting 
eermon. 


128 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


In  1803,  Union  college,  at  Schenectady,  N. 
conferred  on  Mr.  Baldwin  the  honorary  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity.  He  was  a  trustee,  and  after- 
wards a  fellow  of  Brown  University,  at  Providence, 
II.  I.,  a  trustee  of  Columbia  college,  at  Washington, 
D.  C,  and  of  Waterville  college,  in  Maine.  He 
was  also  president,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  of  the 
Baptist  Board  of  Managers  for  Foreign  Missions. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  convention  for  amending 
the  constitution  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  the  year  1821,  and  he  occasionally  ad- 
dressed the  convention  with  ability  and  effect. 

Dr.  Baldwin  died  suddenly  at  Waterville,  Me., 
August  29,  1825,  whither  he  had  gone  to  attend 
the  annual  commencement  of  the  college.  His  re- 
mains were  conveyed  to  Boston,  and  interred  with 
every  mark  of  respect  and  veneration.  He  had 
been  aware,  for  some  time,  that  he  was  drawing 
near  to  the  grave.  "  Dr.  Baldwin,"  remarks  his 
biographer,  "  was  not  afraid  to  die.  His  faith  was 
firm,  his  hope  was  unclouded.  Like  the  sun  at 
his  setting,  what  was  wanting  in  meridian  splen- 
dor, was  more  than  supplied  by  the  mild  radiance 
on  which  the  eye  delighted  to  dwell,  and  which 
threw  abroad  its  rich  and  mellow  glories  more  pro- 
fusely the  nearer  it  approached  to  the  moment  of 
its  departure." 

The  number  of  Dr.  Baldwin's  publications,  be- 
sides his  numerous  contributions  to  periodical 
works,  amounted  to  thirty-seven.  Most  of  them 
were  single  occasional  sermons.  As  a  proof  of 
the  extent  of  his  labors,  it  is  mentioned  that  the 
number  of  individuals  whom  he  had  baptized  in 
Boston  and  other  places,  amounted  to  seven  hun- 
dred and  eighty-eight.   The  number  of  marriages 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


129 


which  he  solemnized  in  Boston,  was  two  thousand 
six  hundred  and  sixty-one. 

Much  of  the  excellence  of  Dr.  Baldwin's  char- 
acter is,  doubtless,  to  be  attributed  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  he  was  thrown  in  the  providence 
of  God.  His  residence  in  the  wilds  of  New- 
Hampshire  imparted  an  energy  and  decision  to 
his  character  which  never  forsook  him.  The 
circle  of  clergymen  with  whom  he  associated  in 
the  metropolis  of  New  England  would  naturally 
tend  to  correct  his  taste  and  enlarge  his  views. 
Still  it  was  his  own  patient,  self-denying,  vigorous 
effort,  which  principally,  under  God,  was  the 
cause  of  his  eminent  usefulness.  His  various  con- 
troversies sharpened  and  invigorated  his  reason- 
ing powers,  but  they  did  not  create  or  essentially 
modify  those  powers. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  fact  in  the  history  of  Dr. 
Baldwin,  that  he  almost  commenced  anew  his 
literary  life  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight.  His  suc- 
cess furnishes  strong  encouragement  to  that  class 
in  the  community  whose  early  education  has  been 
neglected,  and  who  find  themselves  in  middle  life 
in  a  state  of  comparative  and  humiliating  igno- 
rance. It  is  never  too  late  to  read ;  it  is  never 
too  late  to  think.  It  is  always  a  duty  and  a  privi- 
lege to  cultivate  those  noble  powers  of  reasoning 
and  judgment,  which  our  benevolent  Creator  has 
given  to  us.  Why  may  not  the  intellect  be  kept 
burning  brightly  to  the  last  moment  of  life  ?  Why 
may  not  the  stores  of  knowledge  be  enlarged  be- 
yond the  age  of  sixty  ?  Why  may  not  even  the 
imagination  retain,  up  to  the  farthest  limit  of 
human  existence,  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  ear- 
lier nights  ?    Why  may  not  the  soul  spring  into  a 


130 


THOMAS  BALDWIN. 


renovated  and  immortal  life,  with  unimpaired  and 
unwasted  energies  ?  Is  not  much  of  that  senility 
in  intellect,  which  we  frequently  observe  in  old 
age,  to  be  attributed,  not  to  the  constitution  of  the 
mind,  not  to  any  law  of  the  Creator,  but  to  habits 
of  bodily  indulgence ;  because  the  individual 
quietly  acquiesced  in  what  he  ought  to  have  vig- 
orously met  and  vanquished  ?  because  he  tamely 
submitted  to  the  suggestions  of  indolence,  or  to 
the  seductive  charms  of  domestic  life  ?  Why  not 
approach  the  territories  of  death  as  Dr.  Dwight 
and  Robert  Hall  did,  with  firm  step  and  clear- 
sighted vision,  with  intelligent  humble  faith,  and 
with  intellect  too  strong  and  elastic  for  the  frail 
earthly  tenement  any  longer  to  imprison. 


DAVID  RITTENHOUSE. 


See  the  sage  Rittenhouse,  with  ardent  eye, 

Lift  the  long  tube  and  pierce  the  starry  sky ; 

Clear  in  his  view  the  circling  systems  roll, 

And  broader  splendors  gild  the  central  pole. 

He  marks  what  laws  the  eccentric  wanderers  bind, 

Copies  creation  in  his  forming  mind, 

And  bids,  beneath  his  hand  in  semblance  rise, 

With  mimic  orbs,  the  labors  of  the  skies. 

Vision  of  Columbus. 

David  Rittenhouse  was  born  near  German- 
town,  Pennsylvania,  April  8th,  1732.  The  family 
originally  came  from  Guelderland,  a  province  in 
Holland.  They  settled  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
while  it  was  a  Dutch  colony,  and  were  the  first 
who  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  paper  in  this 
country.  The  father  of  David  Rittenhouse 
abandoned  the  occupation  of  a  paper-maker,  when 
about  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and  commenced 
the  business  of  a  farmer,  on  a  piece  of  land  which 
he  had  purchased  in  the  township  of  Norriton, 
about  twenty  miles  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
It  seems  that  he  very  early  designed  his  son  for 
this  useful  and  respectable  employment.  Accord- 
ingly, as  soon  as  the  boy  arrived  at  a  sufficient 
age  to  assist  in  conducting  the  affairs  of  the  farm, 
he  was  occupied  as  an  husbandman.  This  kind 
of  occupation  appears  to  have  commenced  at  an 
early  period  of  his  life.    About  the  fourteenth 


132 


DAVID  RITTEXHOUSE. 


year  of  his  age,  he  was  employed  in  ploughing  in 
his  father's  fields.  His  brother  Benjamin  relates, 
that  while  David  was  thus  engaged  at  the  plough, 
he,  (the  informant,)  then  a  young  boy,  was  fre- 
quently sent  to  call  him  to  his  meals ;  at  which 
times  he  repeatedly  observed,  that  not  only  the 
fences  at  the  head  of  many  of  the  furrows,  but 
even  his  plough  and  its  handles,  were  covered 
over  with  chalked  numerical  figures.  Astronomy 
was  a  favorite  pursuit.  He  also  applied  himself 
industriously  to  the  study  of  optics,  the  mechanical 
powers,  &c.  without  the  advantage  of  the  least 
instruction.  About  the  seventeenth  year  of  his 
age,  he  made  a  wooden  clock  of  very  ingenious 
workmanship  ;  and  soon  after,  he  constructed  one 
of  the  same  materials  that  compose  the  common 
four-and-twenty  hour  clock,  and  upon  the  same 
principles.  He  had,  much  earlier  in  life,  exhib- 
ited proofs  of  his  mechanical  genius,  by  making, 
when  only  seven  or  eight  years  old,  a  complete 
water-mill  in  miniature. 

With  many  valuable  traits  of  character,  old 
Mr.  Rittenhouse  had  no  claims  to  what  is  termed 
genius.  Hence  he  did  not  properly  appreciate 
the  early  specimens  of  talent  which  appeared  in 
his  son  David.  He  was,  for  some  time,  opposed 
to  the  young  man's  earnest  desire  to  renounce 
agricultural  employments,  for  the  purpose  of 
devoting  himself  altogether  to  philosophical  pur- 
suits, in  connection  with  some  such  mechanical 
profession  as  might  best  comport  with  useful 
objects  of  natural  philosophy,  and  be  most  likely, 
at  the  same  time,  to  afford  him  the  means  of  a 
comfortable  subsistence.  At  length,  however,  the 
father  yielded  his  own  inclinations,  in  order  to 


DAVID  RITTENHOUSE. 


133 


gratify  what  was  manifestly  the  irresistible  im- 
pulse of  his  son's  genius.  He  supplied  him  with 
money  to  purchase,  in  Philadelphia,  such  tools  as 
were  more  immediately  necessary  for  commencing 
the  clock-making  business,  which  the  son  then 
adopted  as  his  profession.  About  the  same  time, 
young  Mr.  Rittenhouse  erected,  on  the  side  of  a 
public  road  and  on  his  father's  land,  in  the  town- 
ship of  Norriton,  a  small  but  commodious  work- 
shop ;  and  after  having  made  many  implements 
of  the  trade  with  his  own  hands,  to  supply  the 
deficiency  in  his  purchased  stock,  he  set  out  in 
good  earnest,  as  a  clock  and  mathematical  instru- 
ment maker.  From  the  age  of  eighteen  or  nineteen 
to  twenty-five,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  applied  himself 
unremittingly,  both  to  his  trade  and  his  studies. 
Employed  throughout  the  day  in  his  attention  to 
the  former,  he  devoted  much  of  his  nights  to  the 
latter.  Indeed,  he  deprived  himself  of  the 
necessary  hours  of  rest ;  for  it  was  his  almost 
invariable  practice,  to  sit  up  at  his  books,  until 
midnight,  sometimes  much  later. 

When  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  father  established  his 
residence  at  Norriton,  and  during  the  minority  of 
the  son,  there  were  no  schools  in  the  vicinity  at 
which  anything  more  was  taught,  than  reading 
and  writing  in  the  English  language,  and  the 
simplest  rules  of  arithmetic.  Young  Ritten- 
house's school  education  was  therefore  necessarily 
bounded  by  very  narrow  limits.  He  was  in 
truth  taught  nothing  beyond  those  very  circum- 
scribed studies,  which  have  been  named,  prior  to 
his  ninteenth  year.  The  zeal  with  which  he  pur- 
sued his  studies  will  be  seen  from  the  following 
extract  of  a  letter,  written  in  September,  1756,  be- 
12 


I3i 


DAVID  KITTENIIOTJSE. 


ing  then  little  more  than  twenty-four  years  of  age. 
"  I  have  not  health  for  a  soldier,"  (the  country 
was  then  engaged  in  war,)  "  and  as  I  have  no 
expectation  of  serving  my  country  in  that  way,  I 
am  spending  my  time  in  the  old  trifling  manner, 
and  am  so  taken  with  optics,  that  I  do  not  know 
whether,  if  the  enemy  should  invade  this  part  of 
the  country,  as  Archimedes  was  slain  while 
making  geometrical  figures  on  the  sandf  so  I 
should  die  making  a  telescope." 

An  incident  now  occurred  which  served  to  make 
known  more  extensively,  the  extraordinary  genius 
of  Rittenhouse.  His  mother  had  two  brothers, 
David  and  Lewis  Williams  (or  William,)  both  of 
whom  died  in  their  minority.  David,  the  elder 
of  these,  pursued  the  trade  of  a  carpenter,  or 
joiner.  Though,  like  his  nephew  and  namesake, 
he  was  almost  wholly  an  uneducated  youth,  he 
also,  like  him,  early  discovered  an  unusual  genius 
and  strength  of  mind.  After  the  death  of  this 
young  man,  on  opening  a  chest  containing  the 
implements  of  his  trade,  which  was  deposited  at 
Mr.  M.  Rittenhouse's,  (in  whose  family  it  is  pre- 
sumed he  dwelt,)  a  few  elementary  books,  treating 
of  arithmetic  and  geometry  were  found  in  it. 
With  these,  there  were  various  calculations  and 
other  papers,  in  manuscript;  all  the  productions 
of  David  Williams  himself,  and  such  as  indicated 
not  only  an  uncommon  genius,  but  an  active 
spirit  of  philosophical  research.  To  this  humble 
yet  valuable  coffer  of  his  deceased  uncle,  Ritten- 
house had  free  access,  while  yet  a  very  young 
boy.  He  often  spoke  of  this  acquisition  as  a 
treasure,  inasmuch  as  the  instruments  belonging 
to  his  uncle,  afforded  him  the  means  of  gratifying 


DAVID  RITT  EN  HOUSE. 


135 


and  exercising  bis  mechanical  genius,  while  the 
books  and  manuscripts  early  led  his  mind  to 
those  congenial  pursuits  in  mathematical  and 
astronomical  science,  which  were  ever  the  favor- 
ite objects  of  his  studies.  This  circu instance, 
probably,  occurred  before  his  twelfth  year. 
"  It  was  during  the  residence  of  Rittenhouse 
xvith  his  father  at  Norriton,"  says  his  eulogist, 
Dr.  Rush,  "  that  he  made  himself  master  of 
Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Principia,  which  he  read 
in  the  English  translation  of  Mr.  Motte.  It  was 
here,  likewise,  that  he  became  acquainted  with  the 
science  of  fluxions ;  of  which  sublime  invention, 
he  believed  himself  for  a  while  to  be  the  author, 
nor  did  he  know  for  some  years  afterwards,  that 
a  contest  had  been  carried  on  between  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  and  Leibnitz,  for  the  honor  of  that  great 
and  useful  discovery."  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  early 
zeal  in  his  practical  researches  into  astronomy, 
prompted  him  to  desire  the  greatest  possible 
accuracy  in  the  construction  of  time-pieces  adapted 
to  astronomical  purposes  ;  and  uniting,  as  he  did, 
operative  skill  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
principles  upon  which  their  construction  depends, 
he  was  enabled,  by  his  own  mechanical  ingenuity, 
to  gain  a  near  approach  to  the  perfection  to  which 
the  pendulum-chronometer  may  be  brought. 

"  There  is  nothing  peculiar  in  the  mechanism 
of  this  time-piece,  which  requires  to  be  mentioned, 
except  the  pendulum  ;  especially  the  apparatus  for 
counteracting  the  effects  of  temperature.  For 
<his  purpose,  there  is  fastened  on  the  pendulum- 
rod  (which  is  of  iron  or  steel)  a  glass  tube  about 
thirty-six  inches  long ;  bent  in  the  middle  into 
two  parallel  branches,  at  the  distance  of  about  an 


130 


DAVID  RITTEXIIOUSE. 


inch  from  each  other ;  the  bend  being  placed 
downwards,  immediately  above  the  bob  of  the 
pendulum.  The  tube  is  open  at  one  end,  and 
closed  at  the  other ;  the  arm  which  is  closed  at 
the  top  is  tilled,  within  about  two  inches  of  the 
lower  end  or  bend,  with  alcohol,  and  the  rest  of 
the  tube,  within  about  one  half  of  an  inch  of  the 
upper  extremity,  or  open  end,  with  mercury;  a 
few  inches  of  the  tube,  at  this  extremity,  being 
about  twice  the  width  of  the  rest  of  the  tube. 

"  Now  when  the  heat  of  the  air  increases,  it 
will  expand  the  pendulum-rod  and  would  thus 
lower  the  centre  of  oscillation,  and  cause  the 
clock  to  go  slower ;  but  this  effect  is  completely 
counteracted,  by  the  expansion  of  the  alcohol 
chiefly,  and  of  the  mercury  in  part ;  which  equally 
raises  the  centre  of  oscillation,  and  thus  preserves 
an  equable  motion  in  all  the  variable  temperatures 
of  the  atmosphere." 

The  great  accuracy  and  exquisite  workmanship 
displayed  in  everything  belonging  to  the  profes- 
sion which  Mr.  Rittenhouse  pursued,  that  came 
through  his  hands,  soon  became  extensively 
known,  in  that  portion  of  the  United  States  where 
he  lived.  This  knowledge  of  his  mechanical 
abilities,  assisted  by  the  reputation  which  he  had 
already  acquired  as  a  mathematician  and  astrono- 
mer, in  a  short  time  procured  him  the  friendship 
and  patronage  of  some  eminent  scientific  men. 
In  mechanics  he  was  entirely  self-taught.  He 
never  received  the  least  instruction  from  any 
person,  in  any  mechanic  art  whatever.  If  he 
were  to  be  considered  merely  as  an  excellent 
artist,  in  an  occupation  intimately  connected  with 
the  science  of  mechanics,  untutored  as  he  was  in 


DAVID  RITTENHOUSE. 


137 


any  art  or  science,  lie  would  deservedly  be  deemed 
an  extraordinary  man. 

In  the  bosom  of  his  father's  family  he  long  con- 
tinued to  enjoy  the  tranquil  scenes  of  rural  life, 
amidst  the  society  of  an  amiable  and  very  intelli- 
gent family  circle,  and  surrounded  by  many 
estimable  neighbors,  by  whom  he  was  both  loved 
and  respected.  His  chief  occupation  was  that  of 
the  profession  which  he  had  chosen,  but  the  occa- 
sional intervals  of  leisure  from  his  business,  which 
his  assistant  workmen  enabled  him  to  obtain,  he 
devoted  to  philosophical  and  abstract  studies. 

In  February,  1766,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Eleanor  Colston,  the  daughter  of  a 
respectable  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
who  lived  in  the  neighborhood.  After  her  death 
he  married  Miss  Hannah  Jacobs. 

In  the  1767,  among  other  things,  he  contrived 
and  made  a  very  ingenious  thermometer,  con- 
structed on  the  principle  of  the  expansion  and 
contraction  of  metals  by  heat  and  cold,  respect- 
ively. This  instrument  had,  under  glass,  a  face 
upon  which  was  a  graduated  semi-circle ;  the 
degrees  of  heat  and  cold  corresponded  with  those 
of  Fahrenheit's  thermometer;  and  these  were 
also  correspondingly  designated  by  an  index 
moving  on  the  centre  of  the  arch.  Its  square,  or 
rather  parallelogramical  form,  its  flatness  and 
thinness,  and  its  small  size,  together  with  its  not 
being  liable  to  the  least  sensible  injury  or  irregu- 
larity, from  any  position  in  which  it  might  be 
placed,  rendered  it  a  very  convenient  thermometer 
to  be  carried  in  the  pocket. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Rittenhouse  made  a  very 
ingenious  orrery-  Though  no  description  in 
12* 


138 


DAYID  RITTEXIIOUSE. 


words,  can  give  an  adequate  idea,  yet  we  sub- 
join a  part  of  the  philosopher's  own  account 
of  it.  "  This  machine  is  intended  to  have  three 
faces,  standing  perpendicular  to  the  horizon  ;  that 
in  the  front  to  be  four  feet  square,  made  of  sheet 
brass,  curiously  polished,  silvered  and  painted,  in 
proper  places,  and  otherwise  properly  ornamented. 
From  the  centre  arises  an  axis,  to  support  a 
gilded  brass  ball,  intended  to  represent  the  sun. 
Round  this  ball  move  others,  made  of  brass  or 
ivory,  to  represent  the  planets.  They  are  to  move 
in  elliptical  orbits,  having  the  central  ball  in  one 
focus  ;  and  their  motions  to  be  sometimes  swifter, 
and  sometimes  slower,  as  nearly  according  to  the 
true  law  of  an  equable  description  of  areas  as 
possible,  without  too  great  a  complication  of  wheel 
work.  The  orbit  of  each  planet  is  likewise  to  be 
properly  inclined  to  those  of  the  others  ;  and  their 
aphelia  and  nodes  justly  placed  ;  and  their  veloci- 
ties so  accurately  adjusted,  as  not  to  differ  sensibly 
from  the  tables  of  astronomy  in  some  thousands 
of  years. 

"  For  the  greater  beauty  of  the  instrument,  the 
balls  representing  the  planets  are  to  be  of  consid- 
erable bigness  ;  but  so  contrived  that  they  may  be 
taken  off  at  pleasure,  and  others,  much  smaller, 
and  fitter  for  some  purposes,  put  in  their  places. 

"  When  the  machine  is  put  in  motion,  by  the 
turning  of  a  winch,  there  are  three  indices  which 
point  out  the  hour  of  the  day,  the  day  of  the 
month,  and  the  year  answering  to  that  situation 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  which  is  there  represent- 
ed ;  and  so  continually,  for  a  period  of  five  thou- 
sands years,  either  forwards  or  backwards. 

"  The  two  lesser  faces  are  four  feet  in  height, 


DAVID  RITTENnOUSE. 


139 


and  two  feet  three  inches  in  breadth.  One  of 
them  will  exhibit  all  the  appearances  of  Jupiter 
and  his  satellites,  their  eclipses,  transits,  and  in- 
clinations ;  likewise  all  the  appearances  of  Saturn, 
with  his  ring  and  satellites.  And  the  other  will 
represent  all  the  phenomena  of  the  moon,  partic- 
ularly, the  exact  time,  quantity,  and  duration  of 
her  eclipses,  —  and  those  of  the  sun  occasioned 
by  her  interposition ;  with  a  most  curious  contriv- 
ance for  exhibiting  the  appearance  of  a  solar 
eclipse,  at  any  particular  place  on  the  earth,  like- 
wise the  true  place  of  the  moon  in  the  signs,  with 
her  latitude,  and  the  place  of  her  apogee  in  the 
nodes  ;  the  sun's  declination,  equation  of  time,  &c. 
It  must  be  understood  that  all  these  motions  are 
to  correspond  exactly  with  the  celestial  motions ; 
and  not  to  differ  several  degrees  from  the  truth, 
in  a  few  revolutions,  as  is  common  in  orreries." 

Some  general  idea,  perhaps,  of  this  instrument, 
may  be  derived  from  the  preceding  description ; 
at  least  it  will  afford  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
extraordinary  philosophical  and  mechanical  pow- 
ers of  Rittenhouse. 

Another  most  important  service,  which  he 
rendered  for  the  world,  was  the  observation  of 
the  transit  of  Venus  over  the  sun's  disc,  which 
took  place  on  the  third  of  June,  1769.  There 
had  been  but  one  of  these  transits  of  Venus  over 
the  sun,  during  the  course  of  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty  years  preceding  that  of  1769  ;  and,  for 
upwards  of  seven  centuries,  antecedently  to  the 
commencement  of  that  period,  the  same  planet 
had  passed  over  the  sun's  disc  no  more  than  thir- 
teen times.  The  next  transit  of  Venus  will  take 
place  on  the  8th  of  December,  1874,  which  but  few 


140 


DAVID  RITTENHOU3E. 


if  any  persons  then  on  the  stage  of  life,  will  have 
an  opportunity  of  observing.  From  1874,  down 
to  the  14th  of  June,  A.  D.  2984,  inclusively,  — a 
period  of  upwards  of  eleven  centuries,  —  the 
same  planet  will  pass  over  the  sun's  disc  only 
eighteen  times. 

The  great  use  of  the  observation  of  the  transit 
of  Venus  is  to  determine  the  sun's  parallax.* 
Only  two  of  these  phenomena  had  been  observed 
since  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  the  first  had 
been  seen  by  only  two  persons  —  Jeremiah 
Horrox  and  William  Crabtree,  two  Englishmen. 
As  the  time  approached  when  this  extraordinary 
phenomenon  was  to  manifest  itself,  the  public 
expectation  and  anxiety  were  greatly  excited. 
The  American  Philosophical  Society  appointed 
thirteen  gentlemen,  to  be  distributed  into  three 
committees,  for  the  purpose  of  making  observa- 
tions. Rev.  Dr.  Ewing  had  the  principal  direc- 
tion of  the  observatory  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  ; 
Mr.  Owen  Biddle  had  the  charge  of  superintend- 
ing the  observations  at  Cape  Henlopen,  and  Mr. 
Rittenhouse  those  at  Norriton,  near  his  own  resi- 
dence, on  an  elevated  piece  of  ground,  command- 
ing a  good  range  of  horizontal  view.  It  was 
completely  furnished  with  the  necessary  instru- 
ments, owing  very  much  to  the  liberality  of  some 
scientific  gentlemen  in  England. 


*  A  parallax  denotes  a  change  of  the  apparent  place  of 
any  heavenly  body,  caused  by  being  seen  from  different 
points  of  view;  or  it  is  the  difference  between  the  true  and 
apparent  distance  of  any  heavenly  body  from  the  zenith. 
The  fixed  stars  are  so  remote  as  to  have  no  sensible  parallax ; 
and  even  the  sun  and  all  the  primary  planets,  except  Mars 
and  Venus  when  nearest  the  earth,  are  at  so  great  distances 
from  the  earth,  that  their  parallax  is  too  small  to  be  observed, 


DAVID  RITTENHOUSE. 


141 


"  We  are  naturally  led,"  says  Dr.  Rush,  in  his 
eulogiura,  "  to  take  a  view  of  our  philosopher, 
with  his  associates,  in  their  preparations  to  observe 
a  phenomenon,  which  had  never  been  seen  but 
twice  before  by  any  inhabitant  of  our  earth,  which 
would  never  be  seen  again  by  any  person  then 
living,  and  on  which  depended  very  important 
astronomical  consequences.  The  night  before  the 
long  expected  day,  was  probably  passed  in  a 
degree  of  solicitude  which  precluded  sleep.  How 
great  must  have  been  their  joy,  when  they  beheld 
the  morning  sun  ;  and  the  1  whole  horizon  without 
a  cloud,'  for  such  is  the  description  of  the  day, 
given  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  in  his  report  to  Dr. 
Smith.  In  pensive  silence  and  trembling  anxiety, 
they  waited  for  the  predicted  moment  of  observa- 
tion ;  it  came,  —  and  brought  with  it  all  that  had 
been  wished  for  and  expected  by  those  who  saw 
it.  In  our  philosopher,  in  the  instant  of  one  of 
the  contacts  of  the  planet  with  the  sun,  there  was 
an  emotion  of  delight  so  exquisite  and  powerful, 
as  to  induce  fainting  ;  —  such  was  the  extent  of 
that  pleasure,  which  attends  the  discovery  or  first 
perception  of  truth." 

The  observations  of  Mr.  Rittenhouse  were 
received  with  favor  by  the  whole  philosophical 
world.  Mr.  Ludlam,  one  of  the  vice  presidents 
of  the  Philosophical  Society  of  London,  and  an 
eminent  astronomer,  thus  writes:  "No  astrono- 
mers could  better  deserve  all  possible  encourage- 
ment ;  whether  we  consider  their  care  and 
diligence  in  making  their  observations,  their 
fidelity  in  relating  what  was  done,  or  the  clearness 
and  accuracy  of  their  reasoning  on  this  curious 
and  difficult  subject.    The  more  I  read  the  trans- 


142 


DAYID  EITTENHQUSE. 


actions  of  your  Society,  (the  American  Philosoph- 
ical,) the  more  I  honor  and  esteem  the  members 
of  it.  There  is  not  another  Society  in  the  world, 
that  can  boast  of  a  member  such  as  Mr.  Ritten- 
house  ;  theorist  enough  to  encounter  the  pro- 
blems of  determining,  from  a  few  observations, 
the  orbit  of  a  comet  ;  and  also  mechanic  enough 
to  make  with  his  own  hands,  an  equal-altitude 
instrument,  a  transit-telescope,  and  a  time- piece. 
I  wish  I  was  near  enough  to  see  his  mechanical 
apparatus.  I  find  he  is  engaged  in  making  a 
curious  orrery." 

Dr.  Maskelyne,  Astronomer  Royal  at  Green- 
wich, says,  the  "  Pennsylvania  Observations  of 
the  transit  were  excellent  and  complete,  and  do 
honor  to  the  gentleman  who  made  them,  and  those 
who  promoted  the  undertaking."  Dr.  Wrangel, 
an  eminent  and  learned  Swedish  clergyman, 
speaking  of  the  Transactions  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  says:  "Your  accurate 
observations  of  the  transit  of  Venus,  have  given 
infinite  satisfaction  to  our  Swedish  astronomers." 

On  the  9th  of  November,  following,  Mr. 
Rittenhouse,  in  connection  with  several  others, 
observed  a  transit  of  Mercury  over  the  sun's  disc. 

In  the  autumn  of  1770,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  re- 
moved with  his  family  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 

A  new  phenomenon  in  the  heavens  soon  after 
engaged  his  attention  ;  this  was  the  comet  which 
appeared  in  June  and  July,  1770.  "  Herewith  I 
send  you,"  says  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  writing  to  Dr. 
Smith,  "  the  fruit  of  three  or  four  days'  labor, 
during  which  I  have  covered  many  sheets,  and 
literally  drained  my  ink-stand  several  times."  In 
another  letter  he  remarks,  "  I  told  you  that  some 


DAVID  EITTENHOUSE. 


143 


intricate  calculation,  or  other,  always  takes  up  my 
idle  hours,  (he  seems  to  have  considered  all  his 
hours  '  idle '  ones  which  were  not  taken  up  in 
some  manual  employment,)  that  I  cannot  find 
time  to  write  to  my  friends  as  often  as  I  could 
wish ;  a  new  object  has  lately  engrossed  my 
attention.  The  comet  which  appeared  a  few 
weeks  since  was  so  very  extraordinary,  that  I 
could  not  forbear  tracing  it  in  all  its  wanderings, 
and  endeavoring  to  reduce  that  motion  to  order 
and  regularity  which  seemed  void  of  any.  This, 
I  think,  I  have  accomplished,  so  far  as  to  be  able 
to  compute  its  visible  place  for  any  given  time  ; 
and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  account  from  York, 
of  its  having  been  seen  again  near  the  place 
where  it  first  appeared,  is  a  mistake.  Nor  is  Mr. 
"Winthrop  of  Boston  happier,  in  supposing  that  it 
yet  crosses  the  meridian,  every  day,  between 
twelve  and  one  o'clock,  that  it  has  already  passed 
its  peripelion,  and  that  it  may,  perhaps,  again 
emerge  from  the  southern  horizon.  This  comet 
is  now  to  be  looked  for  nowhere  but  a  little  to  the 
north  of,  and  very  near  to  the  ecliptic.  It  rises 
now  a  little  before  day-break ;  and  will  continue 
to  rise  sooner  and  sooner  every  morning." 

In  March,  1771,  the  Legislature  of  Pennsyl- 
vania bore  the  following  honorable  testimony  to 
the  worth  of  Mr.  Rittenhouse. 

"  The  members  of  assembly,  having  viewed  the 
orrery  constructed  by  Mr.  David  Rittenhouse,  a 
native  of  this  province,  and  being  of  opinion  that 
it  greatly  exceeds  all  others  hitherto  constructed, 
in  demonstrating  the  true  situations  of  the  celes- 
tial bodies,  their  magnitudes,  motions,  distances, 
periods,  eclipses,  and  order,  upon  the  principles  of 
the  Newtonian  system ; 


144 


DAVID  RITTENHOUSE. 


"Resolved,  That  the  sum  of  three  hundred 
pounds  be  given  to  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  as  a  testi- 
mony of  the  high  sense,  which  this  house  entertain 
of  his  mathematical  genius  and  mechanical  abili- 
ties, in  constructing  the  said  orrery." 

In  January,  1771,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  elected 
one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society.  In  1789,  the  honorary  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Laws  was  conferred  upon  Mr. 
Rittenhouse  by  the  college  of  New  Jersey.  In 
January,  1791,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Franklin,  Dr. 
Rittenhouse  was,  with  great  unanimity,  elected 
President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 
In  1795,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  London.  This  high  honor  had  been 
previously  conferred  upon  only  three  or  four 
Americans. 

But  he  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  his  distin- 
guished honors.  Soon  after  his  entrance  upon 
the  sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  in  June,  179G,  he 
died. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  being  pastor  of 
the  congregation  in  which  Dr.  Rittenhouse  had 
often  attended  divine  worship  during  the  latter 
years  of  his  life,  pronounced  an  appropriate 
address  at  his  interment.  "  This,"  says  Dr. 
Green,  "  is  emphatically  the  tomb  of  genius  and 
science.  Their  child,  their  martyr  is  here  depos- 
ited, —  and  their  friends  will  make  his  eulogy  in 
tears.  I  stand  not  here  to  pronounce  it;  the 
thought  that  engrosses  my  mind  is  this ;  how 
much  more  clear  and  impressive  must  be  the 
views,  which  the  late  spiritual  inhabitant  of  that 
lifeless  corpse  now  possesses  of  God, — of  his 
infinite  existence,  of  his  adorable  attributes,  and 
of  that  eternal  blaze  of  glory  which  emanates 


DAVID  RITTETs  HOUSE. 


145 


from  Him,  —  than  when  she  was  blinded  by  her 
vail  of  flesh !  Accustomed  as  she  was  to  pene- 
trate far  into  the  universe,  —  far  as  corporeal  or 
mental  vision  here  can  reach,  —  still  what  new 
and  extensive  scenes  of  wonder  have  opened  on 
her  eyes,  enlightened  and  invigorated  by  death ! 
The  discoveries  of  Rittenhouse,  since  he  died, 
have  already  been  more,  and  greater,  than  while 
he  lived.  Yes,  and  could  he  address  us  from  the 
spiritual  world,  his  language  would  be  — 

'All,  all  on  earth  is  shadow,  all  beyond 
Is  substance.  — '  " 

In  a  conversation  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Sproat, 
Dr.  Rittenhouse,  a  short  time  before  his  death, 
declared  that  "  he  could  with  truth  say,  that  ever 
since  he  had  examined  Christianity  and  thought 
upon  the  subject,  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  it ;  and 
that  he  expected  salvation  only  in  the  way  of  the 
gospel."  He  had  not  attached  himself  to  any 
particular  church.  The  members  of  his  family 
were  mostly  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  In  the 
last  years  of  his  life  he  read  many  books  on 
natural  and  revealed  religion.  He  was  much 
pleased  with  the  "  Thoughts  of  Pascal." 

He  was  a  very  modest  and  unassuming  man, 
and  in  this  strikingly  resembled  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
for  whose  character  and  works,  he  had  the  highest 
veneration.  His  usefulness,  though  great,  was 
considerably  circumscribed  by  his  want  of  an 
early  education.  In  consequence  of  this,  he  felt 
an  unbecoming  diffidence  in  his  own  powers,  and 
failed  to  commit  his  discoveries  and  thoughts  to 
writing,  which,  in  a  published  form,  would, 
doubtless,  have  eminently  increased  his  usefulness, 
and  the  honor  of  the  country  which  gave  him  birth. 
13 


SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON. 


Samuel  Huntington  was  born  in  Windham, 
in  the  State  of  Connecticut,  July  3,  1732.  The 
family  of  Huntingtons  emigrated  into  this  country 
at  an  early  period.  Nathaniel  Huntington,  the 
father  of  Samuel,  was  a  plain  but  estimable  man, 
who  followed  the  occupation  of  farming,  in  the 
town  of  Windham.  His  wife  was  distinguished 
for  piety  and  native  talent,  and  their  numerous 
children,  of  whom  three  devoted  themselves  to 
the  Christian  ministry,  were  endued  with  an  un- 
usual share  of  mental  vigor.  Samuel,  however, 
did  not  participate  in  the  invaluable  benefits 
which  a  collegiate  education  conferred  upon  his 
brothers.  Being  the  eldest  son,  he  was  destined 
to  pursue  the  humble  but  honorable  course  of  his 
father  —  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  His  oppor- 
tunities for  acquiring  knowledge  were  extremely 
limited,  and  he  received  no  other  education  than 
the  common  schools  of  Connecticut  at  that  time 
afforded.  He  was  gifted,  however,  with  a  fine 
understanding,  and  with  a  strong  taste  for  mental 
improvement.  He  employed  all  his  leisure  hours 
in  reading  and  study.  But  even  in  this  limited 
and  imperfect  course  he  was  compelled  to  struggle 
with  great  difficulties.  Books  were  then  exceed- 
ingly rare.  We,  who  live  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  can  hardly  conceive  the  extent  of  the 
destitution  of  books,  which  prevailed  even  in  the 
time  of  the  Revolutionary  war.     The  whole 


SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON. 


H7 


library  of  which  some  most  respectable  families 
were  possessed,  consisted  of  a  Psalter,  one  large 
Bible,  and  two  or  three  of  smaller  size*  Dilworth's 
Spelling  Book,  an  Almanac,  and  perhaps  one 
volume  of  the  Berry  Street  (London)  Sermons. 
Some  families  contrived  to  obtain  a  few  additional 
works,  but  the  scarcity  everywhere  was  very 
great.  A  curious  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the  Life 
of  President  Edwards,  in  which  he  acknowledges 
repeatedly,  his  great  obligations  to  his  foreign 
correspondents  for  books  and  pamphlets,  which 
would  not  now  be  considered  worth  a  transmission 
across  the  Atlantic.  Social  or  public  libraries 
were  almost  unknown,  especially  in  the  smaller 
towns. 

The  labors  of  the  farm,  which  young  Hunting- 
ton continued  to  perform  until  the  twenty-second 
year  of  his  age,  necessarily  occupied  the  greater 
portion  of  his  time,  yet  his  strong  mind  and  un- 
wearied industry  enabled  him  to  acquire  consider- 
able scientific  information  upon  various  subjects. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-two  years,  when  he  aban- 
doned his  agricultural  pursuits  to  engage  in  the 
study  of  the  law,  he  had  acquired,  principally 
from  his  own  unassisted  exertions,  an  excellent 
common  education.  He  attained  considerable 
acquaintance  with  the  Latin  language,  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  he  directed  his  attention  to  any 
other  foreign  tongue. 

He  early  manifested  a  strong  desire  to  study 
the  legal  profession ;  he  resolved  "  to  thread  the 
maze  of  the  law,"  with  no  other  guide  than  his 
own  judgment  and  perseverance,  and  to  attain  to 
distinguished  usefulness  by  industry  and  self- 
denial.    It  is  probable  that  the  method  adopted 


148 


SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON. 


by  him  arose  from  pecuniary  difficulties.  He  did 
not  attempt  to  seek  the  benefits  of  legal  tuition  in 
the  office  of  a  lawyer,  but  borrowed  the  necessary 
books  from  colonel  Jedediah  Elderkin,  a  member 
of  the  profession,  residing  in  Norwich.  Having 
attained  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  general 
principles  of  law,  he  commenced  his  professional 
career  in  the  town  of  Windham.  In  1760,  he 
removed  to  Norwich.  His  reputation  as  an  advo- 
cate and  a  man  of  talents  was  soon  established. 
Aided  by  a  candid  and  deliberate  manner,  which 
appeared  in  some  degree  constitutional,  few  law- 
yers commanded  a  more  extensive  practice.  He 
was  known  to  be  a  man  of  good  sense,  integrity 
and  punctuality.  In  1774,  Mr.  Huntington  was 
appointed  an  associate  judge  of  the  superior  court. 
In  1775,  in  conjunction  with  Roger  Sherman, 
Titus  Hosmer,  Oliver  Wolcott  and  William 
Williams,  Mr.  Huntington  took  his  seat  in  the 
general  congress.  In  July,  1776,  he  affixed  his 
name  to  the  immortal  instrument  which  declared 
our  independence.  He  retained  his  seat  in 
congress  till  1780. 

His  stern  integrity  and  inflexible  patriotism  ren- 
dered him  a  prominent  member,  and  attracted  a 
large  portion  of  the  current  business  of  the  house, 
especially  that  which  was  assigned  to  committees. 
On  the  28th  of  September,  1779,  on  the  resigna- 
tion of  John  Jay,  Mr.  Huntington  was  chosen  to 
the  highest  civil  dignity  of  the  country  —  that  of 
president  of  congress.  In  1781,  he  declined  a  re- 
appointment, on  account  of  ill  health.  He  then 
resumed  his  judicial  functions  in  the  supreme  court 
of  Connecticut.  In  1783,  he  again  took  his  seat 
in  congress.    In  1784,  he  was  appointed  chief- 


SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON. 


149 


justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Connecticut.  He 
presided  on  the  bench  with  great  ability,  integrity 
and  reputation.  In  1786,  he  succeeded  governor 
Griswold  as  chief  magistrate  of  the  State,  and 
continued  to  be  reelected  with  singular  unanimity 
till  his  death.  He  closed  his  life  at  Norwich,  on 
the  5th  of  January,  1796,  in  the  sixty-fourth  year 
of  his  age.  His  death  was  tranquil  and  exem- 
plary, and  his  religious  confidence  generally  firm 
and  unwavering. 

For  many  years  he  had  been  a  professor  of  re- 
ligion, and  appeared  to  derive  great  delight  from 
the  doctrines  and  ordinances  of  the  gospel.  When 
the  congregation  with  which  he  worshipped  was 
destitute  of  preaching,  he  officiated  as  a  reader 
and  conductor  of  the  services. 

Perhaps  no  man  ever  possessed  greater  mild- 
ness and  equanimity  than  governor  Huntington, 
A  living  witness  attests,  that  during  a  residence 
of  twenty-four  years  in  his  family,  he  never,  in  a 
single  instance,  exhibited  the  slightest  symptom 
of  anger,  nor  spoke  one  word  calculated  to  wound 
the  feelings  of  another,  or  to  injure  an  absent 
person.  Notwithstanding  his  elevation,  he  had 
none  of  that  false  pride,  which  dignity  and  honors 
are  so  apt  to  create.  After  performing  the  busi- 
ness of  his  office  and  instructing  numerous  stu- 
dents in  the  principles  of  law  he  was  accustomed, 
if  any  garden  or  household  utensils  had  been 
broken,  to  repair  them  with  his  own  hands ;  and 
rather  than  require  the  attendance  of  a  servant 
for  any  trivial  services,  he  would  perform  them 
himself.  Being  a  man  of  great  simplicity  and 
plainness  of  manners,  he  maintained  that  it  was  a 
public  duty  to  exhibit  such  an  example  as  might, 


150 


SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON. 


so  far  as  his  individual  efforts  could  avail,  coun- 
teract the  spirit  of  extravagance,  which  had  begun 
to  appear.  He  was  very  economical,  though  not 
parsimonious,  in  his  personal  habits  and  domestic 
arrangements.  His  distinguishing  characteristics, 
both  in  conversation  and  in  epistolary  correspond- 
ence, were  brevity  and  caution. 

In  1762,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Martha 
Devotion,  a  daughter  of  the  very  respectable 
clergyman  of  the  town  of  Windham.  Having  no 
children  of  their  own,  they  adopted  two  children 
of  their  brother's,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Huntington. 
The  late  Samuel  Huntington,  governor  of  Ohio, 
and  Mrs.  Griffin,  the  lady  of  the  venerable  presi- 
dent of  Williams  college,  were  the  individuals 
who  supplied  the  deficiency  in  his  family,  and 
were  privileged  with  his  excellent  example  and 
instructions. 


WILLIAM  EDWARDS. 


William  Edwards,  the  celebrated  Welsh  en- 
gineer, was  born  in  1719,  in  the  parish  of  Eglwy- 
san,  in  Glamorganshire.  He  lost  his  father,  who 
was  a  farmer,  when  he  was  only  two  years  old ; 
but  his  mother  continued  to  hold  the  farm,  and 
was  in  this  manner  enabled  to  bring  up  her 
family,  consisting  of  two  other  sons  and  a  daugh- 
ter, besides  William,  who  was  the  youngest.  Her 
other  sons,  indeed,  were  soon  old  enough  to  take 
the  chief  part  of  the  charge  from  her  hands. 
William  was  taught  in  the  mean  time  to  read  and 
write  Welsh ;  and  this  was  all  the  education  which 
he  seems  to  have  received.  When  about  the  age 
of  fifteen,  he  first  began  to  employ  himself  in 
repairing  the  stone  fences  of  the  farm;  and  in 
this  humble  species  of  masonry  he  soon  acquired 
uncommon  expertness.  The  excellent  work  he 
made,  and  the  despatch  with  which  he  finished 
it,  at  last  attracted  the  notice  of  the  neighboring 
farmers ;  and  they  advised  his  brothers  to  keep 
him  at  this  business,  and  let  him  employ  his  skill, 
when  wanted,  on  other  farms,  as  well  as  their  own. 
After  this  he  was  for  some  time  constantly  en- 
gaged; and  he  regularly  added  his  earnings  to 
the  common  stock  of  the  family. 

Hitherto,  the  only  sort  of  building  which  he 
had  practised  or  had  seen  practised,  was  merely 
stone-masonry  without  mortar.  But  at  length  it 
happened  that  some  masons  came  to  the  parish  to 


152 


WILLIAM  EDWAKDS. 


erect  a  shed  for  shoeing  horses,  near  a  smith's 
shop.  William  contemplated  the  operations  of 
these  architects  with  the  liveliest  interest,  and  he 
used  to  stand  by  them  for  hours  while  they  were 
at  work,  taking  note  of  every  movement  which 
they  made.  A  circumstance,  which  at  once  struck 
him,  was  that  they  used  a  different  description  of 
hammer  from  what  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
employ ;  and  perceiving  its  superiority,  he  imme- 
diately procured  one  of  the  same  kind  for  himself. 
With  this  he  found  he  could  build  his  walls  much 
more  neatly  than  he  had  been  wont  to  do. 

But  it  was  not  long  after  he  had,  for  the  first 
time  in  his  life,  an  opportunity  of  seeing  how 
houses  were  erected,  that  he  undertook  to  build 
one  himself.  It  was  a  workshop  for  a  neighbor ; 
and  he  performed  his  task  in  such  a  manner  as 
gained  him  great  applause.  Very  soon  after  this, 
he  was  employed  to  erect  a  mill,  by  which  he  still 
further  increased  his  reputation.  lie  was  now 
accounted  the  best  wrorkman  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  and  being  highly  esteemed  for  integrity 
and  fidelity  to  his  engagements,  as  well  as  for  his 
skill,  he  had  as  much  employment  in  his  line  of  a 
common  builder  as  he  could  undertake. 

In  his  twenty-seventh  year,  however,  he  was 
induced  to  engage  in  an  enterprise  of  a  much  more 
difficult  and  important  character  than  anything 
which  he  had  hitherto  attempted.  Through  his 
native  parish  runs  a  river,  called  the  TafF,  which 
flows  into  the  estuary  of  the  Severn.  It  was 
proposed  to  throw  a  bridge  over  this  river,  at  a 
particular  spot,  where  it  crossed  the  line  of  an 
intended  road ;  but  to  this  design  difficulties  of  a 
somewhat  formidable  nature  presented  themselves, 


WILLIAM  EDWARDS. 


153 


owing  both  to  the  great  breadth  of  the  river,  and 
the  frequent  swellings  to  which  it  was  subject. 
Mountains,  covered  with  wood,  rose  to  a  consid- 
erable height  from  both  its  banks;  which  first 
attracted  and  detained  every  approaching  cloud, 
and  then  sent  down  its  contents  in  torrents  to  the 
river.  Edwards,  undertook  the  task  of  construct- 
ing the  proposed  bridge,  though  it  was  the  first 
work  of  the  kind  in  which  he  ever  engaged. 

Accordingly,  in  the  year  174G,  he  set  to  work; 
and  in  due  time  completed  a  very  light  and  elegant 
bridge,  of  three  arches,  which,  notwithstanding 
that  it  was  the  work  of  both  an  entirely  self-taught 
and  an  equally  untravelled  artist,  was  acknowl- 
edged to  be  superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  in 
Wales.  So  far  his  success  had  been  as  perfect 
as  anything  which  could  be  desired.  But  his 
undertaking  was  far  from  being  yet  finished.  He 
had,  both  through  himself  and  his  friends,  given 
security  that  the  work  should  stand  for  seven 
years ;  and  for  two  and  a  half  years  of  this  term 
all  went  on  well.  There  then  occurred  a  flood  of 
extraordinary  magnitude;  not  only  the  torrents 
came  down  from  the  mountains,  in  their  accus- 
tomed channels,  but  they  brought  along  with  them 
trees  of  the  largest  size,  which  they  had  torn  up 
by  the  roots ;  and  these  detained,  as  they  floated 
along  by  the  middle  piers  of  the  bridge,  formed  a 
dam  there ;  the  waters  accumulating  behind,  at 
length  burst  from  their  confinement,  and  swept 
away  the  whole  structure. 

This  was  no  light  misfortune  in  every  way  to 
poor  Edwards ;  but  he  did  not  suffer  himself  to  be 
disheartened  by  it,  and  he  immediately  proceeded, 
as  his  contract  bound  him  to  do,  to  the  erection  of 


154 


WILLIAM  EDWARDS. 


another  bridge.  He  now  determined,  however, 
to  span  the  whole  width  of  the  river  by  a  single 
arch  of  the  unexampled  magnitude  of  one  hundred 
and  forty  feet  from  pier  to  pier.  He  finished  the 
erection  of  this  stupendous  arch  in  1751,  and  had 
only  to  add  the  parapets,  when  lie  was  doomed 
once  more  to  behold  his  bridge  sink  into  the  water 
over  which  he  had  raised  it,  —  the  extraordinary 
weight  of  the  masonry  having  forced  up  the  key- 
stones, and,  of  course,  at  once  deprived  the  arch 
of  what  sustained  its  equipoise. 

Heavy  as  was  this  second  disappointment  to 
the  hopes  of  the  young  architect,  it  did  not  shake 
his  courage  any  more  than  the  former  had  done. 
The  reconstruction  of  his  bridge  for  the  third  time 
was  immediately  begun  with  unabated  spirit  and 
confidence.  Still  determined  to  adhere  to  his  last 
plan  of  a  single  arch,  he  had  now  thought  of  an  in- 
genious contrivance  for  diminishing  the  enormous 
weight  which  had  formerly  forced  the  key-stone 
out  of  its  place.  In  each  of  the  large  masses  of 
masonry,  called  the  haunches  of  the  bridge,  being 
the  parts  immediately  above  the  two  extremities 
of  the  arch,  he  opened  three  cylindrical  holes, 
which  not  only  relieved  the  central  part  of  the 
structure  from  all  overpressure,  but  greatly  im- 
proved its  general  appearance  in  point  of  lightness 
and  elegance.  This  bridge  was  finished  in  1755  ; 
the  whole  undertaking  having  occupied  the  archi- 
tect about  nine  years  in  all ;  and  it  has  stood  ever 
since.  This  bridge,  at  the  time  of  its  erection, 
was  the  largest  stone  arch  known  to  exist  in  the 
world. 

Since  that  time,  stone  arches  of  extraordinary 
dimensions  have  been  built,  —  such  as  the  five 


WILLIAM  EDWARDS. 


155 


arches  composing  the  splendid  Pont  de  Neuilly, 
over  the  river  Seine,  near  Paris,  the  span  of  each 
of  which  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  feet;  — 
the  island-bridge,  over  the  Liffey,  near  Dublin, 
which  is  a  single  arch  one  hundred  and  six  feet 
in  width ;  —  the  bridge  over  the  Tees,  at  Winston 
in  Yorkshire,  which  is  also  a  single  arch  one  hun- 
dred and  eight  feet  nine  inches  in  width,  was  built 
by  John  Johnson,  a  common  mason,  at  a  cost  of 
only  live  hundred  pounds  ;  —  and  the  nine  elliptical 
arches,  each  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  span, 
forming  the  magnificent  Waterloo  bridge,  over  the 
Thames,  at  London.  A  bridge  has  recently  been 
built  at  Chester,  which  is  the  largest  single  arch 
in  the  world,  being  two  hundred  feet  span.  At 
Bishop's  Wearmouth,  in  the  county  of  Durham, 
there  is  a  cast-iron  bridge  over  the  river  Wear, 
the  chord  of  the  arch  of  which  is  two  hundred  and 
forty  feet  long.  The  Southwark  or  Trafalgar 
bridge,  over  the  Thames,  at  London,  is  at  present 
the  linest  iron  bridge  in  the  world.  It  consists  of 
three  arches ;  the  chord  of  the  middle  arch  is  two 
hundred  and  forty  feet  long.  There  is  a  timber 
bridge  over  the  Delaware,  near  Trenton,  N.  J., 
which  is  the  segment  of  a  circle  three  hundred 
and  forty-five  feet  in  diameter.  The  wooden 
bridge  over  the  Schuylkill,  at  Philadelphia,  was  of 
the  extraordinary  span  of  three  hundred  and  forty 
feet;  but  having  been  destroyed  by  fire,  a  few 
years  since,  it  is  now  replaced  by  a  splendid  one 
of  wire.  The  bridge  over  the  Piscataqua,  near 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  is  the  segment  of  a  circle  six 
hundred  feet  in  diameter. 

The  bridge  built  by  Edwards,  over  the  Taff, 
buttressed  as  it  is  at  each  extremity  by  lofty  moun- 


156 


WILLIAM  EDWARDS. 


tains,  while  the  water  flows  in  full  tide  beneath  it 
at  the  distance  of  thirty-five  feet,  presents  an  as- 
pect very  striking  and  magnificent.  This  bridge 
spread  the  fame  of  Edwards  over  all  the  country. 
He  afterwards  built  many  bridges  in  South  Wales, 
having  their  arches  formed  of  segments  of  much 
larger  circles,  and  consequently  much  more  con- 
venient. He  found  his  way  to  this  improvement 
entirely  by  his  own  experience  and  sagacity ;  as 
indeed  he  may  be  said  to  have  done  in  regard  to 
all  the  knowledge  which  he  possessed  in  his  art. 
Even  his  principles  of  common  masonry,  he  used 
himself  to  declare,  he  learned  chiefly  from  his 
studies  among  the  ruins  of  an  old  gothic  castle  in 
his  native  parish. 

Edwards  was,  likewise,  a  farmer  to  the  end  of 
his  days.  Such,  moreover,  was  his  unwearied 
activity  that,  not  satisfied  with  his  weekday  labors 
in  these  two  capacities,  he  also  officiated  on  the 
Sabbath  as  pastor  of  an  Independent  congregation, 
having  been  regularly  ordained  to  that  otfice  when 
he  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  and  holding  it 
till  his  death.  He  accepted  the  usual  salary  from 
his  congregation,  considering  it  right  that  they 
should  support  their  minister  ;  but  instead  of  put- 
ting the  money  into  his  own  pocket,  he  returned 
it  all,  and  often  much  more,  in  charity  to  the  poor. 
He  always  preached  in  Welsh,  though  early  in 
life  he  had  made  himself  acquainted  with  the 
English  language,  having  acquired  it  under  the 
tuition  of  a  blind  old  schoolmaster,  in  whose  house 
he  once  lodged  for  a  short  time,  while  doing  some 
work  at  the  county-town  of  Cardiff.  In  this  effort 
he  showed  all  his  characteristic  assiduity. 

He  died  in  1789,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  hia 


WILLIAM  EDWARDS. 


157 


age.  His  eldest  son,  David,  became  also  an  emi- 
nent architect  and  bridge-builder,  though  he  had 
no  other  instruction  in  his  profession  than  what 
his  father  had  given  him.  David's  eldest  son, 
also,  inherited  the  genius  of  his  father  and  grand- 
father. 


14 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


It  is  not  our  object  to  write  the  life,  or  even  to 
abridge  the  interesting  Memoir  of  this  venerated 
man.  We  shall  simply  collect  such  facts  as  bear 
on  the  design  of  our  present  undertaking,  incor- 
porating such  remarks  as  may  seem  timely  and 
important. 

"  My  father,"  says  Dr.  Scott,  "  was  a  grazier ;  a 
man  of  a  small  and  feeble  body,  but  of  uncommon 
energy  of  mind  and  vigor  of  intellect ;  by  which 
he  surmounted,  in  no  common  degree,  the  almost 
total  want  of  education.  His  circumstances  were 
very  narrow,  and  for  many  years  he  struggled 
with  urgent  difficulties.  But  Le  rose  above 
them,  and,  though  never  affluent,  his  credit  was 
supported,  and  he  lived  in  more  comfortable 
circumstances  to  the  age  of  seventy-six  years. 
He  had  thirteen  children,  ten  of  whom  lived  to 
maturity ;  and  my  eldest  brother  was  twenty-three 
years  older  than  my  youngest  sister.  Having 
been  taught,  principally  by  my  mother,  to  read 
fluently  and  to  spell  accurately,  I  learned  the  first 
elements  of  Latin  at  Burgh,  two  miles  off,  at  a 
school  to  which,  for  a  while,  I  went  as  a  day 
scholar.  But  at  eight  years  of  age  I  was  sent  to 
Bennington,  a  village  about  four  miles  north  of 
Boston,  where  my  father  had  a  grazing  farm,  that 
I  might  attend  a  school  in  the  parish  kept  by  a 
clergyman.  Here  I  continued  about  two  years ; 
and,  in  addition  to  writing,  and  the  first  rudiments 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


159 


of  arithmetic,  I  learned  a  little  Latin,  at  my 
master's  desire,  who  thought  he  saw  in  me  a  turn 
for  that  kind  of  learning.  He  had,  as  I  recollect, 
no  other  Latin  scholar." 

About  this  time  his  eldest  brother,  who  was  a 
surgeon  in  the  navy,  died.  "My  father/'  con- 
tinues the  narrative,  "  felt  this  event,  as,  in  every 
way,  a  most  heavy  affliction.  He  determined, 
however,  if  possible,  to  have  a  son  in  the  medical 
profession ;  and,  as  I  was  thought  of  the  proper 
age,  and  seemed  capable  of  readily  learning 
Latin,  I  was  selected.  From  this  time  my  atten- 
tain  was  almost  entirely  directed  to  that  language  ; 
and,  at  different  places,  I  got  a  superficial  knowl- 
edge of  several  books  generally  read  at  schools ; 
which  gave  the  appearance  of  far  greater  profi- 
ciency than  I  had  actually  made.  At  ten  years 
of  age  I  was  sent  to  Scorton,  where  my  brother 
had  been  before  me ;  and  there  I  remained  five 
years,  without  returning  home,  or  seeing  any 
relation  or  acquaintance.  The  whole  expense  of 
boarding  and  clothing  me  amounted  to  £14  a 
year  ;  two  guineas  were  paid  for  teaching,  books 
being  found  ;  there  were  some  extra  charges  for 
writing,  arithmetic,  and  French,  and  some  ex- 
penses for  medical  assistance ;  but  I  have  often 
heard  my  father  mention  that  I  cost  him  £17  a 
year  for  five  years.  I  think  he  must  have  under- 
rated the  sum,  but  I  am  fully  satisfied  that  £100 
more  than  covered  all  the  charges  of  the  five 
years  ;  and  this  was  all  the  cost  of  my  education. 

"  The  Rev.  John  Noble  was  head-master  of 
the  school  at  Scorton.  He  had  been,  in  his  day, 
indisputably,  an  able  teacher  of  the  learned 
languages ;  but  at  this  time  he  was  old  and  leth- 


IGO 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


argic ;  and  though  still  assiduous,  was  most  grossly 
imposed  upon  by  the  boys,  and  by  none  more  than 
by  myself.  When  I  arrived  at  Scorton,  I  was 
asked  what  Latin  books  I  had  read ;  and  my 
answer  induced  the  usher  to  overrate  my  profi- 
ciency, and  to  place  me  in  a  class  much  beyond 
my  superficial  attainments.  This,  however,  stim- 
ulated me  to  close  application,  and  it  was  not  very 
long  before  I  overtook  my  class-mates,  and  with 
ease  accompanied  them.  Had  I  then  been  again 
pushed  forward,  I  might  have  been  excited  to 
persevering  diligence  ;  but  as  I  could  appear  with 
laudable  credit,  without  much  application  ;  partly 
by  actual  proficiency,  and  partly  by  imposing  on 
Mr.  Noble,  under  whose  care  I  now  came ;  my 
love  of  play,  and  my  scarcity  of  money  for  self- 
indulgent  expenses,  induced  me  to  divide  a  great 
proportion  of  my  time  between  diversion  and 
helping  other  boys  in  their  exercises,  for  a  very 
scanty  remuneration,  which  I  lost  in  gaming,  or 
squandered  in  gratifying  my  appetite.  One  thing 
is  remarkable,  considering  what  has  since  taken 
place,  that,  while  I  could  translate  Latin  into 
English,  or  English  into  Latin,  perhaps  more 
readily  and  correctly  than  any  other  boy  in  the 
school,  I  never  could  compose  themes.  I  abso- 
lutely seemed  to  have  no  ideas,  when  set  to  work 
of  this  kind,  either  then  or  for  some  years  after- 
wards ;  and  was  even  greatly  at  a  loss  to  write  a 
common  letter.  As  for  verses,  I  never  wrote  any 
except  nonsense  verses,  of  one  kind  or  other ; 
which  has  perhaps  been  the  case  also  of  many 
more  prolific  versifiers.  God  had  not  made  me 
a  poet,  and  I  am  very  thankful  that  I  never 
attempted  to  make  myself  one." 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


161 


Soon  after  leaving  school,  he  was  bound  ap- 
prentice to  a  surgeon  and  apothecary  at  Alford, 
ajxwt  eight  miles  from  Braytoft,  his  father's  resi- 
dence. His  master,  it  appears,  was  entirely 
unprincipled,  and  young  Scott  followed  closely  in 
his  steps.  At  the  end  of  two  months,  he  was 
sent  home  in  deep  disgrace  for  gross  misconduct. 
Though  this  was  a  severe  mortification  to  his 
father  and  to  the  whole  family,  yet  the  course 
pursued  towards  him  seems  to  have  been  unjusti- 
fiably severe,  and  even  cruel. 

"  Immediately  on  my  return  home,"  continues 
Mr.  Scott,  "  I  was  set  to  do,  as  well  as  I  could, 
the  most  laborious  and  dirty  parts  of  the  work 
belonging  to  a  grazier.  On  this  I  entered  at  the 
beginning  of  winter  ;  and  as  much  of  my  father's 
farm  consisted  of  low  land,  which  was  often 
flooded,  I  was  introduced  to  scenes  of  hardship, 
and  exposed  to  many  dangers  from  wet  and  cold, 
for  which  my  previous  habits  had  not  prepared 
me.  In  consequence  I  was  frequently  ill,  and,  at 
length,  suffered  such  repeated  and  obstinate 
maladies  that  my  life  was  more  than  once  des- 
paired of.  Yet  a  kind  of  indignant,  proud  self- 
revenge,  kept  me  from  complaining  of  hardship  ; 
though  of  reproach  and  even  of  reproof,  I  was 
impatient  to  the  greatest  degree  of  irascibility. 
After  a  few  unsuccessful  attempts,  my  father  gave 
up  all  thoughts  of  placing  me  out  in  any  other 
way  ;  and  for  above  nine  years  I  was  nearly  as 
entire  a  drudge  as  any  servant  or  laborer  in  his 
employ ;  and  almost  as  little  known  beyond  the 
circle  of  immediate  neighbors.  My  occupation 
was  generally  about  the  cattle,  and  particularly  in 
the  spring  season.  In  this  service  I  learned 
14* 


162 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


habits  of  hardiness  in  encountering  all  sorts  of 
weather,  (for  the  worse  the  weather,  the  more 
needful  it  was  that  I  should  be  with  the  sheep,) 
which  have  since  proved  useful  to  me  ;  and  though 
I  was  not  kept  from  learning  many  vices,  I  was 
out  of  the  way  of  acquiring  habits  of  ease  and 
indulgence,  as  I  should  otherwise,  probably,  have 
done.  My  situation,  however,  led  me  to  associate 
with  persons  of  the  lowest  station  of  life,  and 
wholly  destitute  of  religious  principle  —  in  all 
ranks  the  grand  corrective,  and  in  this  rank 
almost  the  sole  restraint  upon  character  and  man- 
ners. These  persons  tried  to  please  me  with 
flatteries,  and  to  inflame  still  more  the  indignancy 
of  spirit  with  which  I  rebelled  against  the  sup- 
posed degradation  that  I  suffered." 

Still  he  entertained  thoughts  of  the  University  * 
and  of  the  clerical  profession.  He  fondly  cherish- 
ed the  hope  of  one  day  rising  from  the  degradation 
to  which  he  was  condemned.  Hence,  in  some  of 
the  winter  evenings  he  used  to  read  whatever 
books  he  could  procure.  But  strange  to  say,  his 
father,  though  himself  a  studious  and  inquisitive 
man,  was  wholly  opposed  to  the  gratification  of 
the  literary  propensity  of  his  son,  judging  it  to 
be  wholly  inconsistent  with  diligence  in  his  busi- 
ness. He  used  to  say  frequently  that  he  foresaw 
that  his  son  would  come  to  be  a  charge  to  the 
parish. 

This  conduct  of  his  father  greatly  strengthened 
him  to  spend  his  leisure  time  from  home,  and  often 
in  low  and  abandoned  company.  Another  impedi- 
ment was  the  almost  entire  want  of  books.  A 
few  torn  Latin  books,  a  small  imperfect  Dictionary, 
and  an  Eton  Greek  Grammar,  composed  his 
whole  stock  in  the  languages. 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


1G3 


Mr.  Scott  had  only  one  surviving  brother,  and 
he  was  well  situated  on  a  farm.  His  father  was 
far  advanced  in  life,  and  not  of  a  strong  constitu- 
tion. It  was  generally  supposed  that  Thomas 
would  succeed  to  the  estate.  "  But  at  length," 
says  the  narrative,  "  it  was  discovered  that  the 
lease  of  this  farm  was  left  by  will  to  my  brother ; 
and  that  I  was  merely  to  be  under-tenant  to  him 
for  some  marsh-grazing  lands,  which  were  without 
a  house,  and  on  which  I  knew  a  family  could  not 
be  decently  maintained.  On  this  discovery,  I 
determined  to  make  some  effort  to  extricate  my- 
self ;  and  I  only  waited  for  an  opportunity  to 
declare  my  determination.  Without  delay  my 
Greek  Grammar  was  studied  through  and 
through ;  and  I  made  what  use  I  could  of  my 
Latin  books  ;  my  father,  in  the  mean  time,  expres- 
sing his  astonishment  at  my  conduct. 

"At  length,  in  April,  1772,  in  almost  the  worst 
manner  possible,  after  a  long  wet  day  of  incessant 
fatigue,  I  deemed  myself,  and  perhaps  with  jus- 
tice, to  be  causelessly  and  severely  blamed,  and  I 
gave  full  vent  to  my  indignant  passions;  and 
throwing  aside  my  shepherd's  frock,  declared  my 
purpose  no  more  to  resume  it.  That  night  I 
lodged  at  my  brother's,  at  a  little  distance ;  but, 
in  the  morning,  I  considered  that  a  large  flock  of 
sheep  had  no  one  to  look  after  them,  who  was 
competent  to  the  task ;  I  therefore  returned  and 
did  what  was  needful ;  and  then  set  off  for  Boston, 
where  a  clergyman  resided,  with  whom  I  had 
contracted  some  acquaintance,  by  conversing  with 
him  on  common  matters,  when  he  came  to  do  duty 
in  my  brother's  village,  and  took  refreshments  at 
his  house. 


164 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


"  To  this  clergyman  I  opened  my  mind  with 
hesitancy  and  trepidation  ;  and  nothing  could  ex- 
ceed his  astonishment  when  he  heard  my  purpose 
of  attempting  to  obtain  orders.  He  knew  me 
only  as  a  shepherd,  somewhat  more  conversable, 
perhaps,  than  others  in  that  station,  and  imme- 
diately asked,  '  Do  you  know  anything  of  Latin 
and  Greek?'  I  told  him  I  had  received  an 
education,  but  that  for  almost  ten  years,  I  had  not 
seen  a  Greek  book,  except  the  Grammar.  He 
instantly  took  down  a  Greek  Testament,  and  put 
it  into  my  hands  ;  and  without  difficulty  I  read 
several  verses,  giving  both  the  Latin  and  English 
rendering  of  them,  according  to  the  custom  of  our 
school.  On  this,  having  strongly  expressed  his 
surprise,  he  said,  '  Our  visitation  will  be  next 
week ;  the  archdeacon,  Dr.  Gordon,  will  be  here ; 
and  if  you  will  be  in  the  town  I  will  mention  you 
to  him,  and  induce  him,  if  I  can,  to  send  for  you.' 
This  being  settled,  I  returned  immediately  to  my 
father  for  the  intervening  days ;  knowing  how 
much,  at  that  season,  he  wanted  my  help,  for  ser- 
vices which  he  could  no  longer  perform  himself, 
and  was  not  accustomed  to  entrust  to  servants." 

In  a  letter  to  his  sisters,  which  he  wrote  about 
this  time,  he  says,  "  My  aunt  Wayet  endeavored 
to  rally  me  out  of  my  scheme,  but  I  must  own  I 
thought  her  arguments  weak.  She  urged  the 
ridicule  which  poor  parsons  meet  with ;  but 
surely,  those  who  ridicule  any  one  on  account  of 
his  poverty,  if  he  behaves  in  a  manner  worthy 
of  his  situation,  are  themselves  persons  whose 
opinion  I  despise.  She  said  she  would  not  be  of 
any  profession,  unless  at  the  head  of  it ;  but  this 
can  be  no  rule  for  general  practice,  as  some  mu3t 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


165 


be  subordinate.  She  mentioned  my  not  being 
brought  up  in  a  regular  manner ;  but  it  is  the  end, 
not  the  means,  which  is  of  the  greatest  conse- 
quence ;  and  if  a  man  be  qualified,  it  matters  not 
where  he  procured  his  qualifications.  It  some- 
times humbles  my  vanity  to  hear  them  all  account 
of  me  as  one  of  the  lowest  order  of  the  profession, 
not  only  in  point  of  fortune,  but  also  in  other 
particulars.  If  I  know  myself,  I  am  not  defi- 
cient in  abilities,  though  I  am  in  the  art  of  render- 
ing them  conspicuous ;  my  vanity  prompts  me  to 
say,  that  I  am  not  without  hopes  of  making 
friends  in  this  way  of  life,  as  I  shall  be  more  con- 
versant with  men  of  letters,  who  are  the  compan- 
ions I  most  delight  in,  and  for  whose  company  I 
shall  spare  no  pains  to  qualify  myself.  But  let 
my  condition  in  life  be  what  it  will,  I  will  endeavor 
to  suit  myself  to  it.  Pray  heaven  preserve  me 
independent  on  any  other  for  a  livelihood,  and  I 
ask  no  more.  The  happiest  hours  I  ever  spent, 
have  been  in  your  company,  and  the  greatest 
reluctance  I  feel  at  this  change  of  my  situation  is, 
the  being  separated  from  a  set  of  sisters,  for 
whom  I  have  the  most  sincere  regard. 

"  At  the  appointed  time,"  continues  the  narra- 
tive, "  I  returned  to  Boston,  where  my  family 
was  well  known,  and  readily  found  access  to  the 
archdeacon,  who  was  also  examining  chaplain  to 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Dr.  Green.  Before  him  I 
repeated,  in  another  part  of  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment, what  I  had  done  at  the  clergyman's  house  ; 
and  was  asked  many  questions,  which  I  answered 
without  the  least  disguise.  The  archdeacon  con- 
cluded the  interview,  by  assuring  me  that  he 
would  state  my  case  to  the  bishop,  and  saying 


1G6 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


that  he  thought  it  probable  his  lordship  would 
ordain  me. 

"  Thus  encouraged,  I  expended  all  the  little 
money  which  I  could  raise  on  books ;  went  to  live 
at  Boston ;  and  applied  diligently  to  study  — 
especially  to  improve  my  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
Testament,  (the  Gospels  in  particular,)  and  to 
recover,  or  rather  to  acquire  the  ability  of  com- 
posing in  Latin.  I  had  now  for  some  years  been 
ready  in  expressing  my  thoughts,  and  had  even 
been,  in  some  instances,  a  writer  in  newspapers 
and  magazines.  I  daily,  therefore,  wrote  in 
Latin,  on  texts  of  Scripture,  a  sort  of  short  ser- 
mons, which  my  friend,  the  clergyman,  revised ; 
and,  in  return,  I  afforded  him  very  seasonable  and 
welcome  assistance  in  a  grammar  school  which  he 
taught." 

His  first  attempt  to  gain  ordination  was,  how- 
ever, unsuccessful.  His  papers  had  not  reached 
the  ordaining  bishop  in  season,  and  other  circum- 
stances were  unsatisfactory.  This  repulse  induced 
in  the  bosom  of  the  applicant,  a  kind  of  despair. 
The  bishop  had  said  that  he  should  probably 
admit  him  at  the  next  ordination,  provided  he 
would  procure  his  father's  consent  to  the  measure, 
and  a  letter  from  any  beneficed  clergyman  in  the 
neighborhood.  But  he  was  not  personally  known 
to  half  a  dozen  clergymen  of  the  description 
required  ;  and  his  attempt  was  utterly  reprobated 
by  every  one  of  them  as  in  a  high  degree  pre- 
sumptuous. He  was  now  in  the  twenty-sixth 
year  of  his  age,  wholly  without  the  prospect  of  a 
decent  subsistence,  and  to  complete  the  appalling 
prospect,  his  father  was  most  decidedly  set  against 
the  design. 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


167 


But  an  energy,  such  as  Thomas  Scott  had, 
could  not  be  repressed.  The  fire,  which  was 
burning  in  his  bosom,  no  adverse  circumstances 
could  extinguish.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
accomplish  the  work,  and  it  would  seem  that  no 
human  power  could  stay  him. 

He  travelled  to  his  home  from  London,  by  a 
circuitous  route,  and  a  great  part  of  the  way  on 
foot,  and  the  rest  in  various  vehicles.  At  length 
he  reached  Braytoft,  after  walking  twenty  miles 
in  the  forenoon  ;  having  dined,  and  divested  him- 
self of  his  clerical  dress,  he  resumed  his  shep- 
herd's clothes,  and  in  the  afternoon,  sheared  eleven 
large  sheep ! 

"  This,  however,"  he  observes,  "  was  my  last 
labor  of  the  kind.  My  attempt  to  obtain  orders 
had  been  widely  made  known  in  the  neighborhood, 
even  much  beyond  the  sphere  of  my  personal 
acquaintance ;  and  it  had  excited  much  attention 
and  astonishment,  with  no  small  degree  of  ridi- 
cule. This  raised  the  spirit  of  my  relations ;  and 
the  sentiment  expressed  by  my  brother,  was  that 
of  the  other  branches  of  the  family.  'I  wish,' 
said  he,  '  my  brother  had  not  made  the  attempt ; 
but  I  cannot  bear  to  have  it  said,  that  one  off  our 
name  undertook  what  he  was  unable  to  accom- 
plish.' 

"  In  consequence  of  this  sensation,  my  brother 
and  all  my  sisters  met  by  appointment  at  my 
father's  house  ;  and,  with  my  mother,  urged  it  in 
the  most  earnest  manner,  as  his  indispensable 
duty,  either  to  consent  to  my  ordination,  or  to  fix 
me  on  a  farm  on  my  own  account.  I  apprehend 
it  was  clearly  foreseen  what  his  concession  would 
be,  if  he  could  be  induced  to  concede  at  all ;  and 


168 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


accordingly,  after  much  debate,  he  gave  his  con- 
sent in  writing  to  my  entering  into  orders. 

"As  the  difficulty,  which  I  regarded  as  insuper- 
able, was  in  a  most  unexpected  manner,  surmount- 
ed ;  and  my  hopes  reviving,  I  was  prepared  to 
struggle  over  other  obstacles,  if  possible.  Des- 
pairing of  obtaining  a  letter  to  the  bishop  from 
any  of  the  beneficed  clergymen,  to  whom,  as  living 
within  a  few  miles,  I  was  in  some  degree  known, 
I  applied  without  delay,  to  the  vicar  of  Boston, 
Dr.  Calthorp,  who  wras  well  acquainted  with  my 
mother  and  her  family,  though  he  had  seldom,  if 
ever,  seen  me,  till  I  met  the  archdeacon  at  his 
house.  He  behaved  in  the  most  candid  manner ; 
yet  as  a  truly  conscientious  man,  ( which  I  believe 
he  really  was,)  he  said  justly  that  he  could  not 
sign  my  testimonial,  or  state  anything  concerning 
me  from  his  own  knowledge,  except  for  the  short 
time  which  had  passed  since  I  first  came  to  his 
house  ;  but  that  he  could  give  a  favorable  account 
as  to  that  time ;  and  if  I  could  procure  attesta- 
tions from  any  respectable  persons,  though  not 
clergymen,  he  would  transmit  them  with  his  own 
letter  to  the  bishop.  Thus  encouraged,  I  went 
agaii*  to  reside .  at  Boston,  where  I  applied  dili- 
gently to  my  studies ;  but  I  was  greatly  frowned 
on  by  many  of  my  relations ;  and  I  frequently 
heard  the  laugh  of  the  boys,  as  I  walked  about 
the  street  in  a  brown  coat,  and  with  lank  hair, 
pointing  me  out  as  the  '  parson  ! '  —  if  this  were 
a  species  of  persecution,  it  was  certainly  not  for 
Christ's  sake,  or  for  righteousness'  sake,  for  I  was 
estranged  from  both  at  this  time." 

It  is  proper  here  to  remark,  that  however  valu- 
able the  traits  of  character  were,  which  were 


TIIOMAS  SCOTT. 


1G9 


exhibited  by  Mr.  Scott,  it  is  evident,  and  it  is 
what  he  many  times,  and  sorrowfully  acknowl- 
edged in  subsequent  life,  that  he  had  not  that 
character  which  is  essential  in  the  Christian  min- 
istry. He  approached  this  sacred  work  as  he 
would  have  approached  either  of  the  other  pro- 
fessions. No  spirit  can  be  more  foreign  from  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation  than  ambition,  or  dis- 
appointed pride,  or  that  zeal  which  is  enkindled 
by  a  sense  of  degradation,  and  a  desire  to  rise 
superior  to  our  fellow  creatures,  in  order  to  show 
them  the  strength  of  our  character,  and  the 
energy  of  our  purpose.  The  Great  Shepherd 
was  meek  and  lowly,  and  those  only  are  accepted 
by  him,  who  are  willing  to  tread  in  his  steps. 

"  At  the  ensuing  ordination,  I  was  admitted  a 
candidate,"  continues  Mr.  Scott,  "  without  objec- 
tion, and  was  examined  at  Buckden,  by  Dr.  Gor- 
don. After  examination  on  other  matters,  he 
asked  me  numerous  questions  concerning  the 
nature  of  miracles ;  how  real  miracles  might  be 
distinguished  from  counterfeit  ones  ;  and  how  they 
proved  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  in  support  of 
which  they  were  wrought.  This  was,  indeed, 
almost  the  only  theological  topic  which  I  had 
studied  with  any  tolerable  attention.  He,  how- 
ever, perceived  that  I  began  to  be  alarmed,  and 
kindly  said,  4  You  need  not  be  uneasy ;  I  only 
wished  to  try  of  what  you  were  capable ;  and  I 
perceive  that  Christianity  has  got  an  able  advo- 
cate in  you.'  I  could  not  find  myself  at  liberty 
to  suppress  this  remarkable  attestation,  which  is, 
I  believe,  expressed  exactly  in  the  words  he  used ; 
but  had  he  known  either  my  creed,  and  the  state 
of  my  heart  at  that  time,  or  whither  my  subse- 
15 


170 


TnOMAS  SCOTT. 


quent  inquiries  would  ultimately  lead  me,  I  am 
persuaded  he  would  not  have  spoken  as  he  did." 

Mr.  Scott,  immediately  after  his  ordination-, 
entered  on  his  duties  as  a  curate  for  Stoke,  and 
for  Weston  Underwood,  in  Buckinghamshire. 
"  No  sooner,"  says  Mr.  Scott,  "  was  I  fixed  in  a 
curacy,  than  with  close  application  I  sat  down  to 
the  study  of  the  learned  languages,  and  such 
other  subjects  as  I  considered  most  needful  in  order 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  my  future  advancement. 
I  spared  no  pains,  I  shunned,  as  much  as  I  well 
could,  all  acquaintance  and  diversions,  and  re- 
trenched from  my  usual  hours  of  sleep,  that  I 
might  keep  more  closely  to  this  business." 

In  a  period  of  nine  months  he  read  through  the 
entire  works  of  Josephus  in  the  original  Greek. 
In  a  letter  to  one  of  his  sisters,  dated  September 
18,  1773,  he  remarks,  "I  have,  for  some  time, 
pursued  my  studies  with  assiduity,  but  I  have 
only  lately  got  to  pursue  them  with  method.  I 
am  now  about  three  hours  in  the  day  engaged  in 
Hebrew.  The  books  I  use  are  a  Hebrew  Bible, 
Grammars,  and  Lexicons,  the  noted  Septuagint, 
or  Greek  translation,  and  a  Commentary.  I  be- 
gan at  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  I  intend 
to  go  through  the  whole  Bible  in  that  manner. 
You  will  see  the  manifold  advantages  of  thus 
reading  the  Scriptures.  The  original  text,  a 
Greek  translation  two  thousand  years  old  and 
above,  our  translation,  and  comments,  read  care- 
fully, and  compared  together  word  by  word,  cannot 
fail  to  give  a  deep  insight  into  the  sense  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and  at  the  same  time,  two  languages 
are  unitedly  improving.  The  same  I  am  doing 
in  the  Greek  and  profane  history.    I  am  reading 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


171 


old  Herodotus,  in  the  original,  in  Latin,  and  in 
English.  For  each  book  read,  whether  ancient 
or  modern  history,  I  have  my  maps  laid  before 
me,  and  trace  each  incident  by  the  map  ;  and  in 
some  degree  also  fix  the  chronology.  So  that  the 
languages  seem  my  principal  study ;  history, 
geography,  and  chronology,  go  hand  in  hand. 
Neither  is  logic  neglected.  I  find  my  taste  for 
6tudy  grow  every  day.  I  only  fear  I  shall  be 
like  the  miser,  too  covetous.  In  fact  I  really 
grudge  every  hour  that  I  employ  otherwise. 
Others  go  out  by  choice,  and  stay  at  home  by 
constraint ;  but  I  never  stay  at  home  by  con- 
straint, and  go  out  because  it  is  necessary.  In 
every  other  expense  I  am  grown  a  miser ;  I  take 
every  method  to  save,  but  here  I  am  prodigal. 
No  cost  do  I  in  the  least  grudge,  to  procure 
advantageous  methods  of  pursuing  my  studies. 
Of  the  Hebrew,  some  twenty  weeks  ago  I  knew 
not  a  letter ;  and  I  have  now  read  through  one 
hundred  and  nineteen  of  the  Psalms,  and  twenty- 
three  chapters  of  Genesis;  and  commonly  now 
read  two  chapters  in  the  time  above  mentioned, 
tracing  every  word  to  its  original,  unfolding  every 
verbal  difficulty." 

At  the  same  time  the  more  appropriate  duties 
of  his  calling  were  not  neglected.  He  generally 
wrote  two  sermons  in  a  week,  and  in  one  instance, 
in  the  course  of  three  weeks,  wrote  seven  ser- 
mons, each  thirty-five  minutes  long. 

For  a  few  of  the  following  years,  Mr.  Scott 
was  employed  on  subjects  of  an  exclusively  reli- 
gious nature,  and  deeply  affecting  his  personal 
feelings  and  character.  At  length  he  became 
established  in  the  hopes  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 


172 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


and  thenceforward  his  path  was  illuminated  with 
the  light  of  eternal  life.  But  there  was  no  change 
in  the  vigor  of  his  mind,  and  the  unconquerable 
perseverance  of  his  character.  His  reading  be- 
came as  various  as  he  had  the  opportunity  of 
making  it.  2so  book  that  furnished  knowledge, 
which  might  be  turned  to  account,  was  uninterest- 
ing to  him.  As  an  example,  he  read  repeatedly 
Mr.  Henry  Thornton's  work  on  Paper  Credit, 
having  in  some  measure  been  prepared  for  the 
subject,  by  his  former  study  of  Locke's  Treatises 
on  Money,  &c.  At  a  much  later  period  also  he 
felt  himself  deeply  interested  in  reading  the 
Greek  Tragedians,  and  other  classic  authors,  with 
his  pupils.  He  earnestly  desired  to  see  the 
branches  of  literature  rendered  subservient  to 
religion ;  and  thought  that,  while  too  much  per- 
haps, was  published  directly  upon  theological 
subjects,  there  was  a  lamentable  deficiency  of 
literary  works  conducted  upon  sound  Christian 
principles. 

The  following  extract  exhibits  an  interesting 
trait  in  his  character.  "  After  I  had  written  my 
sermons  for  the  Sunday,  I,  for  a  long  time,  con- 
stantly read  them  to  my  wife  before  they  were 
preached.  At  her  instance,  I  altered  many 
things,  especially  in  exchanging  words,  unintelli- 
gible to  laborers  and  lace-makers,  for  simpler 
language." 

Between  the  year  1807,  and  1814,  Dr.  Scott 
was  the  tutor  of  persons  preparing  to  go  out 
as  missionaries,  under  the  Church  Missionary 
Society.  The  individuals  who  came  under  his 
instruction,  were  in  general  German  Lutheran 
clergymen.    All  of  them  went  forth  as  mission^ 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


173 


aries  in  the  heathen  world  ;  and  most  of  them  are 
now  usefully  employed  in  that  character.  The 
progress  which  they  made  in  their  studies  was 
highly  creditable  ;  in  some  instances,  remarkable. 
"  With  all  my  other  engagements,"  says  Dr.  Scott, 
"  I  am  actually,  in  addition  to  what  I  before  taught 
the  missionaries,  reading  Susoo  and  Arabic  with 
them.  The  former  we  have  mastered  without 
difficulty,  so  far  as  the  printed  books  go ;  and  hope 
soon  to  begin  translating  some  chapters  into  the 
language.  But  as  to  the  latter,  we  make  little 
progress ;  yet  so  far,  that  I  have  no  doubt  of  being 
able  to  read  the  Koran  with  them,  should  they 
continue  here.  It  is  in  itself  a  most  difficult  lan- 
guage, but  my  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  gives 
me  an  advantage." 

This  labor  was  accomplished  when  Dr.  Scott 
was  more  than  sixty  years  old.  Perhaps  there  is 
hardly  on  record  an  instance  of  more  vigorous 
application  to  the  study  of  very  difficult  lan- 
guages,—  the  student  threescore  years  old,  and 
suffering  severely  from  chronic  complaints.  It  is 
one  of  the  proofs  (would  that  they  were  far  more 
numerous,)  of  a  successful  effort  to  withstand  the 
effects  of  age.  The  Hebrew,  likewise,  which  was 
his  auxiliary  on  this  occasion,  had  been  entirely 
resumed,  and  almost  learned  since  his  fifty-third 
year. 

The  history  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Scott  teaches  us 
a  number  of  important  lessons.  It  shows  us  that 
a  resolute  heart  can  vanquish  many  difficulties. 
Dr.  Scott  had  a  great  variety  of  depressing  and 
adverse  circumstances  with  which  to  meet.  He 
had  strong  and  ungovernable  passions.  He  was 
compelled  to  spend  some  of  the  best  years  of  his 
15* 


174 


TnOMAS  SCOTT. 


life  in  an  employment  most  uncongenial  to  mental 
improvement.  He  had  very  little  of  the  ease  and 
leisure,  delightful  associations  and  poetry  of  a 
shepherd's  life.  He  had  the  storms,  the  incessant 
anxiety,  and  the  exhausting  labors  of  the  occupa- 
tion. He  fed  his  flocks,  not  among  the  green  hills 
and  valleys,  but  in  low  marshy  regions,  altogether 
unfriendly  to  intellectual  effort.  He  had  also  the 
disheartening  remembrance  of  an  early  failure 
constantly  before  his  mind.  Of  this  failure  his 
own  misconduct,  too,  was  a  principal  cause.  His 
father,  with  many  valuable  qualities,  was  stern 
and  inexorable.  His  son  had  commenced  an  hon- 
orable profession,  and  had  been  disgraced,  and  he 
determined  to  keep  him  thenceforward  in  a  con- 
dition where  neither  his  good  nor  bad  conduct 
would  be  known,  where  at  least  the  pride  of  the 
family  would  not  again  be  wounded. 

Dr.  Scott  had  also  a  rough  and  unpolished  ex- 
terior. He  had  native  vigor  of  mind,  but  little 
that  was  prepossessing  in  his  first  appearance, 
even  after  a  long  and  familiar  intercourse  with 
enlightened  society.  But  he  urged  his  way  over 
all  these  difficulties  ;  the  number  of  obstacles  only 
called  forth  a  more  determined  energy.  He 
set  his  face  forward,  and  all  the  appalling  forms 
of  discouragement  could  not  divert  him.  Victory 
over  one  enemy  gave  him  additional  power  to 
attack  another.  A  servile  employment,  degraded 
companions,  the  pertinacious  opposition  of  a  father, 
the  goading  recollection  of  the  past,  a  forbidding 
personal  exterior,  severe  bodily  infirmity,  advanc- 
ing age,  the  pressure  of  domestic  duties,  a  miser- 
able stipend  for  support,  —  all,  all  could  not 
dampen  that  ardor  which  engrossed  and  fired  his 
soul. 


THOMAS  SCOTT.  175 

Another  valuable  lesson  which  we  are  taught 
by  Dr.  Scott's  history  is,  that  the  highest  possible 
motives  of  action,  a  regard  to  the  will  of  our 
Maker,  and  the  well-being  of  mankind,  are,  at 
least,  as  operative  and  influential  as  any  selfish 
and  personal  considerations.  In  the  commence- 
ment of  his  intellectual  career,  Dr.  Scott  was 
laboring  for  himself.  Personal  aggrandizement 
was  the  prize  which  he  set  before  him,  and  which 
fixed  his  eye,  quickened  his  step,  filled  his  mind. 
But  ere  long  the  current  of  his  desires  was 
changed.  The  emotions  and  purposes  which  had 
gone  abroad  only  to  bring  back  to  himself  a  fresh 
harvest  of  applause  and  reputation,  went  outward 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  upward  to  the  throne 
of  God.  Personal  ambition  gave  place  to  the 
most  expansive  benevolence.  Instead  of  living 
for  himself  and  for  his  own  times,  he  lived  for 
other  and  future  ages.  But  this  change  did  not 
repress  the  ardor  of  his  soul.  It  did  not  freeze  up 
the  living  current  there.  He  was  as  avaricious 
of  time,  when  that  time  was  devoted  to  the  inter- 
ests of  his  Redeemer,  as  when  it  was  employed 
in  gathering  tributes  of  human  admiration.  He 
grappled  as  strongly  and  as  perseveringly  with 
the  difficulties  of  a  foreign  language,  when  the 
hope  of  heaven  and  the  honor  of  his  Saviour  were 
before  his  eye,  as  when  splendid  church  prefer- 
ment or  literary  reputation  were  the  idols  to  which 
he  bowed  in  worship.  This  fact  is  one  of  great 
interest.  It  shows  that  the  highest  development 
of  the  intellectual  powers  is  in  perfect  accordance 
with  the  most  disinterested  and  godlike  benevo- 
lence ;  that  human  duty  and  human  interest  are 
perfectly  coincident. 


176 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


Dr.  Scott  furnishes  a  most  remarkable  instance 
of  severe  mental  application  till  the  very  close  of 
life.  Amidst  the  pressure  of  disease  and  of  pain, 
which  were  almost  unintermitted,  his  mind  main- 
tained a  very  vigorous  and  healthy  action.  At 
the  age  of  seventy-two  years,  he  remarks,  "I 
never  studied  each  day  more  hours  than  I  now  do. 
Never  was  a  manufactory  more  full  of  constant 
employment  than  our  house ;  five  proof-sheets  of 
my  Commentary  a  week  to  correct,  and  as  many 
sheets  of  copy  (quarto)  to  prepare."  For  about 
forty-six  years  he  studied  eight,  ten,  and  some- 
times fourteen  hours  a  day.  After  thirty-three 
years'  labor  bestowed  on  his  Commentary  on  the 
Scriptures,  he  was  as  assiduous  in  correcting  and 
improving  it  as  ever.  The  marginal  references 
cost  him  seven  years  of  hard  labor.  When  sev- 
enty years  old,  he  engaged  in  a  controversy  with 
a  Jew  on  the  fundamental  questions  in  dispute 
between  the  Jews  and  Christians,  and  produced 
an  original  and  highly  interesting  work  in  defence 
of  the  Christian  faith.  At  the  age  of  sixty,  a 
period  at  which  it  would  generally  be  thought  im- 
practicable to  acquire  a  foreign  tongue,  Dr.  Scott 
studied  Arabic  and  Susoo,  —  the  latter  an  African 
dialect,  and  both  exceedingly  difficult  languages 
to  be  mastered.  We  rejoice  in  this  instance  of  a 
man  bearing  fruit  in  old  age,  triumphing  over  the 
pains  and  weakness  of  mortality,  and  retaining 
full  mental  power  to  the  last  moment  of  life.  It 
shows  what  is  possible  to  be  done  in  numerous 
other  cases.  Many  individuals  intend  to  be  use- 
less, intend  to  gather  themselves  into  a  corner  in 
inglorious  ease,  if  God  sees  fit  to  spare  their  life 
beyond  the  age  of  threescore  years.    Dr.  Scott 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


177 


reasoned  and  acted  differently.  His  sun  was 
almost  as  bright  at  setting  as  in  the  morning  or  at 
the  meridian.  It  sent  forth  the  same  powerful 
heat  and  the  same  mild  and  steady  light. 

It  is  also  very  gratifying  to  see  that  the  uncon- 
querable energy  and  noble  aim  of  this  self-taught 
man  were  not  in  vain.  All  this  energy  was  ex- 
pended on  praiseworthy  objects.  He  labored  not  for 
the  sake  of  showing  his  decision  of  character,  but 
of  doing  good  with  it.  If  he  wasted  little  intellect 
by  idleness,  he  wasted  as  little  by  misapplication. 
He  brought  the  whole  of  his  judgment,  discrimi- 
nation, strong  sense,  fearless  piety  and  unsleeping 
mental  power  to  the  promotion  of  human  happi- 
ness. He  was  certainly  one  of  the  most  useful 
men  that  ever  lived. 

The  sale  of  his  works,  of  plain  didactic  theolo- 
gy, during  his  life  time,  amounted  to  two  hundred 
thousand  pounds  sterling.  Probably  an  equal  sum 
has  been  expended  for  these  same  works  since  his 
death.  Of  his  Commentary  on  the  Scriptures, 
not  less  than  thirty-five  thousand  copies  have 
been  sold  in  the  United  States  alone,  at  a  sum  of 
at  least  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Two 
stereotype  editions  of  it  have  been  published. 
The  work  is  now,  at  the  distance  of  thirty  years 
from  its  publication,  as  popular  and  acceptable  to 
the  religious  public  as  ever.  The  annual  sale  is 
now,  in  this  country,  not  less  than  fifteen  hundred 
copies.  What  an  amount  of  good  has  been  ac- 
complished by  a  single  effort  of  this  entirely  self- 
taught  man.  At  least  one  hundred  thousand 
families  gathering  their  views  of  the  meaning  of 
the  Christian  revelation  from  the  comments  of  a 
single  mind.    This  already  amazing  amount  of 


178 


THOMAS  SCOTT. 


good  is  but  a  tithe  of  what  will  yet  be  seen. 
Wherever,  on  all  the  continents  of  this  earth,  the 
English  language  shall  be  spoken  and  the  English 
Bible  shall  be  found,  there  the  name  of  Thomas 
Scott  will  be  hailed  as  one  of  the  most  important 
benefactors  of  mankind. 


LOTT  GARY. 


Oh,  Afric !  what  has  been  thy  crime  I 

That  thus,  like  Eden's  fratricide, 
A  mark  is  set  upon  thy  clime, 

And  every  brother  shuns  thy  side. 
Yet  are  thy  wrongs,  thou  long  distressed, 

Thy  burden,  by  the  world  unweighed, 
Safe  in  that  unforgetful  breast 

Where  all  the  wrongs  of  earth  are  laid. 
The  sun  upon  thy  forehead  frowned, 

But  man  more  cruel  far  than  he, 
Dark  fetters  on  thy  spirit  bound. 

Look  to  the  mansions  of  the  free  ! 
Look  to  that  realm  where  chains  unbind, 

Where  powerless  falls  the  threatening  rodf 
And  where  the  patient  sufferers  find 

A  friend,  a  father,  in  their  God ! 

Mrs.  Sigoitrney. 

Some  events  which  have  recently  taken  place 
in  this  country,  have  given  a  fresh  interest  to  the 
cause  of  African  colonization.  In  the  county  of 
Southampton,  Virginia,  about  sixty  white  persons 
fell  victims  in  a  negro  insurrection,  which  occur- 
red during  the  summer  of  1831.  A  very  serious 
alarm  has  been  communicated  in  consequence,  to 
various  portions  of  the  southern  country,  and  many 
apprehensions  have  been  entertained  of  the  repe- 
tition of  similar  tragedies.  A  practical,  though 
fearful  proof  has  thus  been  given  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  of  the  evil  of  the  slave  sys- 
tem.   The  danger  has  been  shown  to  be  reaL  ll 


180 


LOTT  CARY. 


is  no  fictitious  terror  which  has  led  the  inhabitants 
of  Virginia  to  consider  more  maturely  and  earnest- 
ly the  plans  of  the  American  Colonization  Society. 
Something  must  be  done.  An  outlet  for  a  part 
of  the  colored  population  must  be  provided  at  all 
hazards.  By  the  recent  awful  events,  the  provi- 
dence of  God  is  speaking  to  us  most  distinctly,  to 
weigh  well  this  subject,  and  to  act  promptly  in 
regard  to  it. 

It  seems  to  us  that  the  American  Colonization 
Society  has  now  come  to  a  most  important  period 
of  its  history,  when  a  great  movement  can  and 
ought  to  be  made  onward,  when,  to  fulfil  the  pal- 
pable indications  of  Providence,  it  should  lay  aside 
all  hindrances,  and  proceed  to  its  great  work  with 
all  the  promptitude  and  wisdom  possible.  Such 
a  course  would  furnish  the  best  of  all  arguments 
wherewith  to  meet  the  numerous  opposers  of  the 
Society.  Plant  on  the  African  coast  high  and 
broad  monuments  of  the  feasibility  of  colonization ; 
erect  along  all  the  shore  living  confutations  of  the 
calumnies  and  of  the  grave  objections  which  have 
been  urged  against  this  infant  enterprise;  show 
practically  that  the  wTell-being  of  the  free-colored 
population  of  this  country  is  one  great  object  of 
the  scheme,  that  when  the  African  steps  upon  the 
Liberian  shore  he  is  elevated  in  the  scale  of  being 
and  rises  into  the  dignity  of  true  freedom.  Write 
the  eulogy  of  the  Society  in  Africa,  on  her  shores, 
in  her  spreading  commerce,  up  her  long  rivers. 
When  the  voice  of  ignorance  or  ill-will  assails  this 
noble  enterprise,  let  a  thousand  happy  voices 
come  over  the  Atlantic  and  deny  the  charge. 

We  do  not,  ourselves,  place  much  confidence  in 
the  opposition  or  the  indifference  which  is  mani- 


LOTT  CARY.  181 

fested  towards  the  Colonization  Society.  It  is  not 
a  selfish,  cold-hearted  policy,  designed  to  remove 
the  colored  people  against  their  inclinations  and 
interest.  It  is  an  enterprise  conceived  in  the 
most  exalted  benevolence  and  in  the  most  compre- 
hensive regards  to  the  interests  of  mankind.  It 
is  not  a  plan  of  the  North  or  the  South.  It  looks 
to  the  well-being  of  two  whole  continents.  In 
lawful  and  proper  ways,  it  would  purify  this  land 
from  a  fearful  and  blighting  curse.  It  would  help 
to  pour  the  light  of  eternal  life  on  the  whole  of 
forlorn  and  lost  Africa. 

Looking  at  the  principal  friends  of  the  Ameri- 
can Colonization  Society,  we  see  no  reason  to 
impugn  their  motives.  Were  not  Harper,  and 
Caldwell,  and  Fitzhugh,  men  of  sagacious  minds, 
and  of  most  expansive  charity?  Did  not  pity, 
real  pity  for  the  woes  of  the  African  race,  fill  the 
bosom  of  Mills,  and  Ashmun,  and  Sessions,  and 
Randall  and  Anderson  ?  To  call  in  question  the 
benevolence  of  such  men,  does  nothing  more  than 
to  bring  into  doubt  that  of  the  objector.  Examine 
the  public  documents,  try  the  public  measures  of 
the  Society  with  the  most  rigid  scrutiny,  and  they 
will  not  be  found  wanting.  Equally  without  foun- 
dation, is  the  objection  urged  against  the  unhealth- 
iness  of  the  African  climate.  Not  one  half  the 
mortality  has  been  experienced  at  Liberia  which 
ravaged  and  almost  desolated  the  early  colonies 
of  Virginia,  New  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts. 
Let  the  forests  be  levelled,  and  pure  air  circulate, 
let  all  the  marshes  and  stagnant  waters  be  drained, 
let  all  the  colonists  avoid  unnecessary  exposure 
and  fatigue,  and  let  them  utterly  abandon  all  use 
of  ardent  spirits  and  other  stimulants,  and  we 
16 


182 


I/OTT  CARY. 


should  hear  little  more  of  the  mortality  of  Liberia. 
Temperate  men  can  live,  and  do  live,  at  Havana, 
Batavia,  at  Calcutta,  and  at  any  other  alleged 
unhealthy  spot  on  the  globe.  Those  places  are 
the  graves  of  Europeans,  because  a  miserable 
police  and  intemperance  have  made  them  to  be  so. 
To  these  causes  we  unhesitatingly  ascribe  the 
greater  part  of  the  mortality  which  has  prevailed 
at  Liberia.  Remove  the  cause  and  the  effect  will 
cease. 

The  plan  of  colonizing  the  colored  people  is  not 
a  chimerical  one.  There  are  abundant  means  for 
this  purpose.  An  appropriation  of  one  million 
of  dollars  annually  to  this  purpose,  would  trans- 
port such  a  number  as  would  speedily  accomplish 
the  great  work.  This  country  has  several  hun- 
dred millions  of  acres  of  land  at  her  disposal. 
How  perfectly  within  the  compass  of  her  ability 
to  assist  in  the  deliverance  and  return  of  the 
African  race!  The  right,  constitutionally,  to  ren- 
der this  assistance  will  hardly  be  denied,  after  the 
Indian  precedent  which  has  been  given,  after  the 
liberal  and  lavish  offers  which  have  been  made, 
to  induce  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  this  coun- 
try to  remove  to  an  El  Dorado  in  the  wilder- 
ness. 

The  great,  the  fundamental  difficulty,  want  of 
intellectual  and  moral  preparation  in  the  colored 
people,  is  not  an  insuperable  one.  There  has 
been,  indeed,  a  long  process  of  degradation. 
Servile  habits  have  been  worn  into  the  soul.  The 
intellect  of  the  Africans  has  been  muffled  and 
bandaged  by  law.  Still  they  have  minds.  The 
spark  of  immortal  life  has  been  kindled  in  them 
by  their  beneficent  Creator.    They  have  the  im- 


LOTT  CART. 


183 


material,  responsible,  expansive,  ever-aspiring 
principle.  Remove  the  pressure  of  adverse  cir- 
cumstances, lay  before  them  the  proper  motives, 
and  they  will  spring  into  the  path  which  leads  to 
honor,  and  knowledge,  and  glory.  The  Creator 
lias  not  doomed  one  portion  of  his  intellectual 
offspring  to  everlasting  seclusion  from  improve- 
ment. He  has  not  buried  them  in  one  vast  grave, 
where  the  light  of  truth  and  joy  and  immortal 
hope  will  never  reach  them.  Africa  has  had  an 
Hanno,  an  Hannibal,  a  Jubo,  a  Cyprian,  an 
Augustine.  Did  not  Africaner,  who  has  been 
termed  the  South  African  Bonaparte,  exhibit 
noble  traits  of  character  ?  Has  not  slavery  itself 
furnished  specimens  of  genius  wThich  would  have 
done  honor  to  the  native  hills  and  pure  air  of 
freedom?  Who  has  not  heard  of  the  generous 
and  affectionate  strains  of  the  self-taught  Phillis 
Wheatley ;  of  the  noble  spirit  of  Citizen  Gran- 
ville of  Hayti,  and  of  the  magnanimity  of  Prince 
Abdul  Rahahhman? 

In  the  year  1739,  and  for  several  years  after- 
wards, Benjamin  Banneker,  a  colored  man  of 
Maryland,  furnished  the  public  with  an  almanac, 
which  was  extensively  circulated  through  the 
Southern  States.  He  wTas  a  self-taught  astrono- 
mer, and  his  calculations  were  so  thorough  and 
exact,  as  to  excite  the  approbation  and  patronage 
of  such  men  as  Pitt,  Fox,  Wilberforce,  and  other 
eminent  men,  by  whom  the  work  was  produced 
in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  as  an  argument 
in  favor  of  the  mental  cultivation  of  colored  peo- 
ple, and  of  their  liberation  from  their  wretched 
thraldom. 

Another  interesting  instance  of  self-taught  Afri- 


184 


LOTT  CART. 


can  genius,  was  Lott  Cary.  lie  was  born  a  slave, 
in  Charles  City  County,  about  thirty  miles  below 
Richmond,  Virginia,  on  the  estate  of  Mr.  William 
A.  Christian.  His  father  was  a  pious  and  much 
respected  member  of  the  Baptist  church,  and  his 
mother,  though  she  made  no  public  profession  of 
religion,  died,  giving  evidence  that  she  relied  for 
salvation  upon  the  merits  of  the  Son  of  God. 
He  was  their  only  child,  and  though  he  had  no 
early  instruction  from  books,  the  admonitions  and 
prayers  of  illiterate  parents  may  have  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  future  usefulness.  In  1804,  he 
was  sent  to  Richmond,  and  hired  out  by  the  year, 
as  a  common  laborer,  at  the  Shockoe  warehouse. 
A  strong  desire  to  be  able  to  read,  was  excited  in 
his  mind,  by  a  sermon  which  he  heard,  and  which 
related  to  our  Lord's  interview  with  Nicodemus ; 
and  having  obtained  a  Testament,  he  commenced 
learning  his  letters,  by  trying  to  read  the  chapter  in 
which  this  interview  is  recorded.  He  was  occa- 
sionally instructed  by  young  gentlemen  at  the 
warehouse,  though  he  never  attended  a  regular 
school.  In  a  little  time  he  was  able  to  read,  and 
also  to  write  so  as  to  make  dray  tickets,  and  super- 
intend the  shipping  of  tobacco.  Shortly  after  the 
death  of  his  first  wife,  in  1813,  he  ransomed  him- 
self and  two  children  for  $850,  a  sum  which  he  had 
obtained  by  his  singular  ability  and  fidelity  in 
managing  the  concerns  of  the  tobacco  warehouse. 
Of  the  real  value  of  his  services  there,  it  has 
been  remarked,  "no  one  but  a  dealer  in  tobacco 
can  form  an  idea."  Notwithstanding  the  hun- 
dreds of  hogsheads,  which  were  committed  to  his 
charge,  he  could  produce  any  one  the  moment  it 
was  called  for;  and  the  shipments  were  made 


LOTT  CART. 


185 


with  a  promptness  and  correctness,  such  as  no 
person,  white  or  colored,  has  equalled  in  the  same 
situation.  The  last  year  in  which  he  remained 
in  the  warehouse  his  salary  was  $800.  For  his 
ability  in  his  work  he  was  highly  esteemed  and 
frequently  rewarded  by  the  merchant  with  a  five 
dollar  bank  note.  He  was  also  allowed  to  sell, 
for  his  own  benefit,  many  small  parcels  of  dam- 
aged tobacco.  It  was  by  saving  the  little  sums 
obtained  in  this  way,  with  the  aid  of  subscriptions 
by  the  merchants  to  whose  interests  he  had  been 
attentive,  that  he  was  enabled  to  purchase  the 
freedom  of  his  family.  When  the  colonists  were 
fitted  out  for  Africa,  he  was  enabled  to  bear  a 
considerable  part  of  his  own  expenses.  He  also 
purchased  a  house  and  some  land  in  Richmond. 
It  is  said  that  while  employed  at  the  warehouse, 
he  often  devoted  his  leisure  time  to  reading,  and 
that  a  gentleman,  on  one  occasion,  taking  up  a 
book  which  he  had  left  for  a  few  moments,  found 
it  to  be  "  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations."  He  re- 
mained, for  some  years  after  his  removal  to  Rich- 
mond, entirely  regardless  of  religion,  and  much 
addicted  to  profane  and  vicious  habits.  But  God 
was  pleased  to  convince  him  of  the  guilt  and 
misery  of  a  sinful  state,  and  in  1807,  he  publicly 
professed  his  faith  in  the  Saviour,  and  became  a 
member  of  the  Baptist  church.  Soon  after  this 
period,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  conducting 
the  services  at  religious  meetings.  Though  he 
had  scarcely  any  knowledge  of  books,  and  but 
little  acquaintance  with  mankind,  he  would  fre- 
quently exhibit  a  boldness  of  thought,  and  a 
strength  of  intellect  which  no  acquirement  could 
bave  ever  given  him.  A  distinguished  minister 
16* 


186 


LOTT  CART. 


of  the  Presbyterian  church  made  the  following 
remark.  "  A  sermon,  which  I  heard  from  Mr. 
Cary,  shortly  before  he  sailed  for  Africa,  was  the 
best  extemporaneous  sermon  which  I  ever  heard. 
It  contained  very  original  and  impressive  thoughts, 
some  of  which  are  distinct  in  my  memory,  and 
never  can  be  forgotten."  The  following  sentences 
form  the  closing  part  of  an  extemporaneous 
address  which  he  uttered  on  the  eve  of  his  depart- 
ure. "  I  am  about  to  leave  you  ;  and  expect  to 
see  your  faces  no  more.  I  long  to  preach  to  the 
poor  Africans  the  way  of  life  and  salvation.  I 
do  not  know  what  may  befall  me,  or  whether  I 
may  rind  a  grave  in  the  ocean,  or  among  the  savage 
men,  or  more  savage  wild  beasts  on  the  coast  of 
Africa ;  nor  am  I  anxious  what  may  become  of 
me.  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  go  ;  and  I  very  much 
fear  that  many  of  those  who  preach  the  gospel 
in  this  country,  will  blush  when  the  Saviour  calls 
them  to  give  an  account  of  their  labors  in  his 
cause,  and  tells  them,  '  I  commanded  you  to  go 
into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,"  and  with  the  most  forcible  emphasis  he 
exclaimed,  "  the  Saviour  may  ask,  '  Where  have 
you  been  ?  "What  have  you  been  doing  ?  Have 
you  endeavored  to  the  utmost  of  your  ability  to 
fulfil  the  commands  I  gave  you ;  or  have  you 
sought  your  own  gratification  and  your  own  ease, 
regardless  of  my  commands  ? ' " 

As  early  as  the  year  1815,  he  began  to  feel 
special  interest  in  the  cause  of  the  African  mis- 
sions, and  contributed,  probably,  more  than  any 
other  person,  in  giving  origin  and  character  to  the 
African  Missionary  Society,  established  during 
that  year  in  Richmond,  and  which  has,  for  thirteen 


LOTT  CART. 


187 


years,  collected  for  the  cause  of  missions  in 
Africa,  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars.  His  benevolence  was  practical,  and 
whenever  and  wherever  good  objects  were  to  be 
effected,  he  was  ready  to  lend  his  aid. 

Mr.  Cary  was  among  the  earliest  emigrants  to 
Africa.  Here  he  saw  before  him  a  wide  and 
interesting  field,  demanding  various  and  powerful 
talents,  and  the  most  devoted  piety.  His  intellect- 
ual ability,  firmness  of  purpose,  unbending  integ- 
rity, correct  judgment,  and  disinterested  benevo- 
lence, soon  placed  him  in  a  conspicuous  station, 
and  gave  him  wide  and  commanding  influence. 
Though  naturally  diffident  and  retiring,  his  worth 
was  too  evident,  to  allow  of  his  remaining  in 
obscurity.  It  is  well  known,  that  great  difficulties 
were  encountered  in  founding  a  settlement  at 
Cape  Montserado.  So  appalling  were  the  circum- 
stances of  the  first  settlers,  that  soon  after  they 
had  taken  possession,  it  was  proposed  that  they 
should  remove  to  Sierra  Leone.  The  resolution 
of  Mr.  Cary  to  remain,  was  not  to  be  shaken,  and 
his  decision  had  no  small  effect  towards  inducing 
others  to  imitate  his  example.  In  the  event,  they 
suffered  severely.  More  than  eight  hundred  na- 
tives attacked  them  in  November,  1822,  but  were 
repulsed;  and  a  few  weeks  after,  a  body  of 
fifteen  hundred  attacked  them  again  at  day-break  ; 
several  of  the  colonists  were  killed  and  wounded  ; 
but  with  only  thirty-seven  effective  men  and  boys, 
and  the  aid  of  their  six  pounder,  they  again 
achieved  a  victory  over  the  natives.  In  these 
scenes  Mr.  Cary  necessarily  bore  a  conspicuous 
part.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  remarks,  that  like 
the  Jews  in  rebuilding  their  city,  they  had  to  toil 


188 


LOTT  CARY. 


with  their  arms  beside  them,  and  rest  upon  their 
arms  every  night ;  but  he  declared  after  this,  in 
the  most  emphatic  terms,  that  "  there  never  had 
been  an  hour  or  a  minute,  no,  not  even  when  the 
balls  were  flying  around  his  head,  when  he  could 
wish  himself  back  to  America  again." 

The  peculiar  exposure  of  the  early  emigrants, 
the  scantiness  of  their  supplies,  and  the  want  of  ade- 
quate medical  attentions,  subjected  them  to  severe 
and  complicated  sufferings.  To  relieve,  if  possi- 
ble, these  sufferings,  Mr.  Cary  obtained  all  the 
information  in  his  power,  concerning  the  diseases 
of  the  climate,  and  the  proper  remedies.  He 
made  liberal  sacrifices  of  his  property,  in  behalf 
of  the  poor  and  distressed ;  and  devoted  his  time 
almost  exclusively  to  the  relief  of  the  destitute, 
the  sick,  and  the  afflicted.  His  services  as  physi- 
cian to  the  colony  were  invaluable,  and  were,  for 
a  long  time,  rendered  without  hope  of  reward. 
But  amid  his  multiplied  cares  and  efforts  for  the 
colony,  he  never  forgot  or  neglected  to  promote 
the  objects  of  the  African  Missionary  Society,  to 
which  he  had  long  cherished  and  evinced  the 
strongest  attachment.  Most  earnestly  did  he  seek 
access  to  the  native  tribes,  and  endeavor  to  instruct 
them  in  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  that  religion, 
which  had  proved  so  powerful  and  precious  in  his 
own  case.  Many  of  his  last  and  most  anxious 
thoughts  were  directed  to  the  establishment  of 
native  schools  in  the  interior.  One  such  school, 
distant  seventy  miles  from  Monrovia,  and  of 
great  promise,  was  established  through  his  agency, 
about  a  year  before  his  death,  and  patronized  and 
superintended  by  him  till  that  mournful  event. 

In  September,  1826,  Mr.  Cary  was  elected 


LOTT  CARY. 


189 


Vice  Agent  of  the  Colony,  and  discharged  the 
duties  of  that  important  office  till  his  death.  In 
his  good  sense,  moral  worth,  decision,  and  public 
spirit,  Mr.  Ashmun,  the  Agent,  had  the  most 
entire  confidence.  Hence,  when  compelled  to 
leave  the  colony,  he  committed  the  administration 
of  affairs  into  the  hands  of  the  Vice  Agent,  in  the 
full  belief  that  no  interest  would  be  betrayed,  and 
no  duty  neglected.  The  conduct  of  Mr.  Cary, 
while  for  six  months  he  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
colony,  added  to  his  previously  high  reputation. 

On  the  evening  of  the  8th  of  November,  1828, 
while  Mr.  Cary,  and  several  others,  were  engaged 
in  making  cartridges  in  the  old  agency  house  at 
Monrovia,  in  preparation  to  defend  the  rights  of 
the  colony  against  a  slave-trader,  a  candle  appears 
to  have  been  accidentally  overturned,  which 
caught  some  loose  powder,  and  almost  instantane- 
ously reached  the  entire  ammunition,  producing 
an  explosion,  which  resulted  in  the  death  of  eight 
persons.    Mr.  Cary  survived  for  two  days. 

"  The  features  and  complexion  of  Mr.  Cary's 
character  were  altogether  African.  He  was  diffi- 
dent, and  showed  no  disposition  to  push  himself 
into  notice.  His  words  were  simple,  few,  direct, 
and  appropriate.  His  conversation  indicated  ra- 
pidity and  clearness  of  thought,  and  an  ability  to 
comprehend  the  great  principles  of  religion  and 
government. 

"To  found  a  Christian  colony,  which  might 
prove  a  blessed  asylum  to  his  degraded  brethren 
in  America,  and  enlighten  and  regenerate  Africa, 
was  an  object  with  which  no  temporal  good,  not 
even  life  could  be  compared.  The  strongest  sym- 
pathies of  his  nature  were  excited  in  behalf  of 


190  LOTT  CART. 


his  unfortunate  people,  and  the  divine  promise 
cheered  and  encouraged  him  in  his  labors  for  their 
improvement  and  salvation.  His  record  is  on 
high.  His  memorial  shall  never  perish.  It  shall 
stand  in  clearer  light,  when  every  chain  is  broken, 
and  Christianity  shall  have  assumed  her  sway 
over  the  millions  of  Africa." 


JOHN  OPIE. 


John  Opie  \va9  born  in  the  parish  of  St. 
Agnes,  about  seven  miles  from  Truro,  in  the 
county  of  Cornwall,  England,  in  1761.  His 
father  and  grandfather  were  carpenters.  John 
appears  to  have  been  regarded  among  his  rustic 
companions  as  a  kind  of  parochial  wonder,  from 
his  early  years.  At  the  age  of  twelve,  he  had 
mastered  Euclid,  and  was  considered  so  skilful  in 
arithmetic  and  penmanship,  that  he  commenced 
an  evening  school  for  the  instruction  of  the  peas- 
ants of  the  parish  of  St.  Agnes.  His  father,  a 
plain  mechanic,  seems  to  have  misunderstood  all 
these  indications  of  mental  superiority,  and 
wished  him  to  leave  the  pen  for  the  plane  and 
saw  ;  and  it  would  appear  that  his  paternal  de- 
sires were  for  some  time  obeyed,  for  John  at 
least  accompanied  his  father  to  his  work ;  but  this 
was  when  he  was  very  young,  and  it  seems  pro- 
bable that  he  disliked  the  business,  since  his 
father  had  to  chastise  him  for  making  ludicrous 
drawings,  with  red  chalk,  on  the  deals  which  were 
planed  for  use. 

His  love  of  art  came  upon  him  early.  When 
he  was  ten  years  old,  he  saw  Mark  Oates,  an 
elder  companion,  and  afterwards  captain  of  ma- 
rines, draw  a  butterfly;  he  looked  anxiously  on, 
and  exclaimed,  "  I  think  I  can  draw  a  butterfly ; 
as  well  as  Mark  Oates ;"  he  took  a  pencil,  tried, 
succeeded,  and  ran  breathless  home  to  tell  his 


192  JOHN  OPIE. 

mother  what  he  had  done.  Soon  afterward  he 
saw  a  picture  of  a  farmyard  in  a  house  in  Truro, 
where  his  father  was  at  work  ;  he  looked  and 
looked  —  went  away  —  returned  again  and  looked 
—  and  seemed  unwilling  to  be  out  of  sight  of  this 
prodigy.  For  this  forwardness,  his  father  gave 
him  a  sharp  chastisement  —  but  the  lady  of  the 
house  interposed,  and  gave  the  boy  another  sight 
of  the  picture.  On  returning  home,  he  procured 
cloth  and  colors,  and  made  a  copy  of  the  painting, 
from  memory  alone.  He  likewise  attempted 
original  delineation  from  life  ;  and,  by  degrees, 
hung  the  humble  dwelling  round  with  likenesses 
of  his  relatives  and  companions,  much  to  the  plea- 
sure of  his  uncle,  a  man  with  sense  and  know- 
ledge above  his  condition,  but  greatly  to  the  vexa- 
tion of  his  father,  who  could  not  comprehend  the 
merit  of  such  an  idle  trade. 

He  was  employed  for  some  time,  in  the  family 
of  Dr.  Wolcot,  the  satirist,  as  a  menial  servant. 
How  long  he  remained  in  that  employment  is  not 
known.  He  commenced  portrait  painting,  by 
profession,  very  early  in  life.  He  used  to  wander 
from  town  to  town  in  quest  of  employment. 
"  One  of  these  expeditions,"  says  his  biographer, 
"  was  to  Padstow,  whither  he  set  forward,  dressed 
as  usual  in  a  boy's  plain  short  jacket,  and  carry- 
ing with  him  all  proper  apparatus  for  portrait 
painting.  Here,  among  others,  he  painted  the 
whole  household  of  the  ancient  and  respectable 
family  of  Prideaux,  even  to  the  dogs  and  cats  of 
the  family.  He  remained  so  long  absent  from 
home,  that  some  uneasiness  began  to  arise  on  his 
account,  but  it  was  dissipated  by  his  returning, 
dressed  in  a  handsome  coat,  with  very  long  skirts, 


JOHN  OPIE. 


193 


laced  ruffles,  and  silk  stockings.  On  seeing  hi3 
mother  he  ran  to  her,  and  taking  out  of  his  pocket 
twenty  guineas  which  he  had  earned  by  his  pencil, 
he  desired  her  to  keep  them,  adding  that  in  future 
he  should  maintain  himself." 

For  his  mother  he  always  entertained  the  deep- 
est affection,  and  neither  age  nor  the  pressure 
of  worldly  business  diminished  his  enthusiasm  in 
the  least.  He  loved  to  speak  of  the  mildness  of 
her  nature  and  the  tenderness  of  her  heart,  of 
her  love  of  truth  and  her  maternal  circumspec- 
tion. He  delighted  to  recall  her  epithets  of  fond- 
ness, and  relate  how  she  watched  over  him  when 
a  boy,  and  warmed  his  gloves  and  great  coat  in 
the  winter  mornings,  on  his  departure  for  school. 
This  good  woman  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety -two, 
enjoyed  the  fame  of  her  son,  and  was  gladdened 
with  his  bounty. 

Of  those  early  efforts,  good  judges  have  spoken 
with  much  approbation;  they  were  deficient  in 
grace,  but  true  to  nature,  and  remarkable  for  their 
fidelity  of  resemblance.  He  painted  with  small 
pencils,  and  finished  more  highly  than  when  his 
hand  had  attained  more  mastery.  His  usual 
price,  when  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  was 
seven  shillings  and  sixpence  for  a  portrait.  But 
of  all  the  works,  which  he  painted  in  those  pro- 
bationary days,  that  which  won  the  admiration  of 
the  good  people  of  Truro  most,  was  a  parrot 
walking  down  his  perch ;  all  the  living  parrots 
that  saw  it,  acknowledged  the  resemblance.  So 
much  was  he  charmed  with  the  pursuit  and  his 
prospects,  that  when  Wolcot  asked  him  how  he 
liked  painting  ?  "  Better,"  he  answered,  "  than 
bread  and  meat."  ;  _ 


194 


JOHN  OPIE. 


In  the  twentieth  year  of  his  age  he  went  to 
London,  and  under  the  patronage  of  Wolcot,  at 
first  excited  great  attention.  Of  his  success, 
Northcote  gives  the  following  account.  "  The 
novelty  and  originality  of  manner  in  his  pictures, 
added  to  his  great  abilities,  drew  an  universal 
attention  from  the  connoisseurs,  and  he  was  im- 
mediately surrounded  and  employed  by  all  the 
principal  nobility  of  England.  When  he  ceased, 
and  that  was  soon,  to  be  a  novelty,  the  capricious 
public  left  him  in  disgust.  They  now  looked  out 
for  his  defects  alone,  and  he  became,  in  his  turn, 
totally  neglected  and  forgotten ;  and,  instead  of 
being  the  sole  object  of  public  attention,  and 
having  the  street  where  he  lived  so  crowded  with 
coaches  of  the  nobility  as  to  become  a  real  nui- 
sance to  the  neighborhood,  4  so,'  as  he  jestingly 
observed  to  me,  '  that  he  thought  he  must  place 
cannon  at  the  door  to  keep  the  multitude  off  from 
it,'  he  now  found  himself  as  entirely  deserted  as 
if  his  house  had  been  infected  with  the  plague. 
Such  is  the  world  ! "  His  popularity,  however, 
continued  rather  longer  than  this  description 
would  seem  to  imply.  When  the  wonder  of  the 
town  began  to  abate,  the  country  came  gaping 
in ;  and  ere  he  had  wearied  both,  he  had  aug- 
mented the  original  thirty  guineas  with  which 
he  commenced  the  adventure,  to  a  very  com- 
fortable sum;  had  furnished  a  house  in  Orange 
Court,  Leicester  Fields.  The  first  use  which  he 
made  of  his  success,  was  to  spread  comfort  around 
his  mother  ;  and  then  he  proceeded  with  his  works 
and  studies  like  one  resolved  to  deserve  the  dis- 
tinction which  he  had  obtained.  His  own  strong 
natural  sense,  and  powers  of  observation,  enabled 


JOHN  OPIE. 


195 


him  to  lift  the  veil  which  the  ignorant  admiration 
of  the  multitude  had  thrown  over  his  defects  ;  he 
saw  where  he  was  weak,  and  labored  most  dili- 
gently to  improve  himself.  His  progress  was 
great,  and  visible  to  all,  save  the  leaders  of 
taste  and  fashion.  When  his  works  were  crude 
and  unstudied,  their  applause  was  deafening: 
when  they  were  such  as  really  merited  a  place  in 
public  galleries,  the  world,  resolved  not  to  be 
infatuated  twice  with  the  same  object,  paid  them 
a  cold,  or  at  least,  a  very  moderate  attention. 
"  Reynolds,"  it  has  been  remarked,  "  is  the  only 
eminent  painter  who  has  been  able  to  charm  back 
the  public  to  himself  after  they  were  tired  of 
him."  The  somewhat  rough  and  unaccommodat- 
ing manners  of  Opie  were  in  his  way ;  it  requires 
delicate  feet  to  tread  the  path  of  portraiture ;  and 
we  must  remember  that  he  was  a  peasant,  unac- 
quainted with  the  elegance  of  learning,  and 
unpolished  by  intercourse  with  the  courtesies  and 
amenities  of  polite  life.  He  was  thrown  into  the 
drawing-room,  rough  and  rude  as  he  came  from 
the  hills  of  Cornwall,  and  had  to  acquit  himself 
as  well  as  he  could. 

He  divided  his  time  between  his  profession  and 
the  cultivation  of  his  mind.  He  was  conscious  of 
his  defective  education ;  and,  like  Reynolds, 
desired  to  repair  it  by  mingling  in  the  company 
of  men  of  learning  and  talent,  and  by  the  careful 
perusal  of  the  noblest  writers.  "  Such  were  the 
powers  of  his  memory  that  he  remembered  all  he 
had  read.  Milton,  Shakespeare,  Dryden,  Pope, 
Gray,  Cowper,  Butler,  Burke,  and  Dr.  Johnson, 
he  might,  to  use  a  familiar  expression,  be  said  to 
know  by  heart."   A  man  of  powerful  under- 


196  jonx  opie. 

standing  and  ready  apprehension,  "  who  remem- 
bered all  he  read,"  and  who  had  nine  of  the  great- 
est and  most  voluminous  of  our  authors  by  heart, 
could  never  be  at  any  loss  in  company,  if  he  had 
tolerable  skill  in  using  his  stores.  To  his  intel- 
lectual vigor  we  have  strong  testimony.  "  Mr. 
Opie,"  said  Horne  Tooke,  "  crowds  more  wisdom 
into  a  few  words  than  almost  any  man  I  ever 
knew ;  he  speaks  as  it  were  in  axioms,  and  what 
he  observes  is  worthy  to  be  remembered."  "  Had 
Mr.  Opie  turned  his  powers  of  mind,"  says  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  "  to  the  study  of  philosophy, 
he  would  have  been  one  of  the  first  philosophers 
of  the  age.  I  was  never  more  struck  than  with 
his  original  manner  of  thinking  and  expressing 
himself  in  conversation ;  and  had  he  written  on 
the  subject,  he  would,  perhaps,  have  thrown  more 
light  on  the  philosophy  of  his  art  than  any  man 
living." 

The  chief  excellence  of  Opie  lies  in  portrait 
painting.  He  has  great  vigor,  breadth,  and  natu- 
ral force  of  character.  His  portrait  of  Charles 
Fox  has  been  justly  commended,  nor  does  the  cir- 
cumstance of  his  having  completed  the  likeness 
from  the  bust  by  Nollekens,  as  related  by  Smith, 
diminish  his  merit.  When  Fox,  who  sat  opposite 
to  Opie  at  the  academy  dinner,  given  in  the  ex- 
hibition-room, heard  the  general  applause  which 
his  portrait  obtained,  he  remembered  that  he  had 
given  him  less  of  his  time  than  the  painter  had 
requested,  and  said  across  the  table,  "  There,  Mr. 
Opie,  you  see  I  was  right ;  everybody  thinks  it 
could  not  be  better.  Now,  if  I  had  minded  you, 
and  consented  to  sit  again,  you  most  probably 
would  have  spoiled  the  picture." 


JOHN  oriE. 


197 


"  He  painted  what  he  saw,"  says  West,  "  in  the 
most  masterly  manner,  and  he  varied  little  from  it. 
He  saw  nature  in  one  point  more  distinctly  and 
forcibly  than  any  painter  who  ever  lived.  The 
truth  of  color,  as  conveyed  to  the  eye  through  the 
atmosphere,  by  which  the  distance  of  every  object 
is  ascertained,  was  never  better  expressed  than  by 
him.  He  distinctly  represented  local  color  in  all 
its  various  tones  and  proportions,  whether  in  light 
or  in  shadow,  with  a  perfect  uniformity  of  imita- 
tion. Other  painters  frequently  made  two  sepa- 
rate colors  of  objects  in  light  and  in  shade,  —  Opie 
never.  With  him  no  color,  whether  white,  black, 
primary  or  compound,  ever,  in  any  situation,  lost 
its  respective  hue." 

His  works  were  not  the  offspring  of  random  fits 
of  labor  after  long  indulgence  in  idleness,  they 
were  the  fruit  of  daily  toil,  in  which  every  hour 
had  its  allotted  task.  "  He  was  always  in  his 
painting-room,"  says  his  wife,  Amelia  Opie,  "  by 
half  past  eight  o'clock,  in  winter,  and  by  eight,  in 
summer ;  and  there  he  generally  remained  closely 
engaged  in  painting,  till  half  past  four,  in  winter, 
and  till  five,  in  summer.  Nor  did  he  allow  him- 
self to  be  idle  when  he  had  no  pictures  bespoken, 
and  as  he  never  let  his  execution  rust  for  want  of 
practice,  he,  in  that  case,  either  sketched  out  de- 
signs for  historical  or  fancy  pictures,  or  endeavor- 
ed, by  working  on  an  unfinished  picture  of  me,  to 
improve  himself  by  incessant  practice  in  that  diffi- 
cult branch  of  art,  female  portraiture.  Neither  did 
he  suffer  his  exertions  to  be  paralyzed  by  neglect 
the  most  unexpected  and  disappointment  the  most 
undeserved." 

"  During  the  nine  years  that  I  was  his  wife," 
17* 


198 


JOHN  OPIE. 


says  Mrs.  Opie,  "  I  never  saw  him  satisfied  with 
any  one  of  his  productions ;  and  often,  very  often, 
have  I  seen  him  enter  my  sitting-room,  and,  in  an 
agony  of  despondence,  throw  himself  on  the  sofa, 
and  exclaim:  'I  am  the  most  stupid  of  created 
beings,  and  I  never,  never  shall  be  a  painter  as 
long  as  I  live.'  He  used  to  study  at  Somerset 
House,  where  the  pictures  were  hung  up,  with 
more  persevering  attention  and  thirst  for  improve- 
ment than  was  ever  exhibited,  perhaps,  by  the 
lowest  student  in  the  schools,  and  on  his  return,  I 
never  heard  him  expatiate  on  his  own  excellences, 
but  sorrowfully  dwell  on  his  own  defects." 

When  Henry  Fuseli  was  made  keeper  of  the 
Royal  Academy,  Opie  was  elected  to  the  profes- 
sorship of  painting.  He  gave  four  lectures,  which 
contain  many  discriminating  remarks  and  valuable 
thoughts,  though  they  are  deficient  in  deep  dis- 
cernment, and  an  original  grasp  of  mind.  The 
following  passage  embodies  important  hints,  not 
only  for  young  artists,  but  for  every  young  man 
who  is  aspiring  to  usefulness  in  any  situation  of 
life. 

"Impressed  as  I  am  at  the  present  moment, 
with  a  full  conviction  of  the  difficulties  attendant 
on  the  practice  of  painting,  I  cannot  but  feel  it 
also  my  duty  to  caution  every  one  who  hears  me, 
against  entering  into  it  from  improper  motives 
and  with  inadequate  views  of  the  subject ;  as  they 
will  thereby  only  run  a  risk  of  entailing  misery 
and  disgrace  on  themselves  and  their  connections 
during  the  rest  of  their  lives.  Should  any  student 
therefore  happen  to  be  present  who  has  taken  up 
the  art,  on  the  supposition  of  finding  it  an  easy 
and  amusing  employment  —  any  one  who  has 


JOHN  OPIE. 


199 


been  sent  into  the  academy  by  his  friends,  with 
the  idea  that  he  may  cheaply  acquire  an  honorable 
and  profitable  profession  —  any  one  who  has  mis- 
taken a  petty  kind  of  imitative  monkey  talent  for 
genius  —  any  one  who  hopes  by  it  to  get  rid  of 
what  he  thinks  a  more  vulgar  or  disagreeable 
situation,  to  escape  confinement  at  the  counter  or 
desk  —  any  one  urged  merely  by  vanity  or  inter- 
est, or,  in  short,  impelled  by  any  consideration  but  a 
real  and  unconquerable  passion  for  excellence  — 
let  him  drop  it  at  once,  and  avoid  these  walls  and 
every  thing  connected  with  them  as  he  would  the 
pestilence ;  for  if  he  have  not  this  unquestion- 
able liking,  in  addition  to  all  the  requisites  above 
enumerated,  he  may  pine  in  indigence,  or  pass 
through  life  as  a  hackney  likeness-taker,  a  copier,  a 
drawing-master  or  pattern-drawer  to  young  ladies, 
or  he  may  turn  picture-cleaner,  and  help  time  to 
destroy  excellences  which  he  cannot  rival,  but  he 
must  never  hope  to  be  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
word,  a  painter. 

"  He  who  wishes  to  be  a  painter,  must  overlook 
no  kind  of  knowledge.  He  must  range  deserts 
and  mountains  for  images,  picture  upon  his  mind 
every  tree  of  the  forest  and  flower  of  the  valley, 
observe  the  crags  of  the  rock  and  the  pinnacles 
of  the  palace,  follow  the  windings  of  the  rivulet, 
and  watch  the  changes  of  the  clouds ;  in  short,  all 
nature,  savage  or  civilized,  animate  or  inanimate, 
the  plants  of  the  garden,  the  animals  of  the  wood, 
the  minerals  of  the  mountains,  and  the  motions  of 
the  sky,  must  undergo  his  examination.  Whatever 
is  great,  whatever  is  beautiful,  whatever  is  inter- 
esting, and  whatever  is  dreadful,  must  be  familiar 
to  his  imagination,  and  concur  to  store  his  mind 


200 


JOHN  OPIE. 


with  an  inexhaustible  variety  of  ideas  ready  for  as- 
sociation on  every  possible  occasion,  to  embellish 
sentiment  and  to  give  effect  to  truth.  It  is  more- 
over absolutely  necessary  that  then  the  epitome  of 
all  —  his  principal  subject  and  his  judge  —  should 
become  a  particular  object  of  his  investigation  ;  he 
must  be  acquainted  with  all  that  is  characteristic 
and  beautiful,  both  in  regard  to  his  mental  and 
bodily  endowments;  must  study  their  analogies, 
and  learn  how  far  moral  and  physical  excellence 
are  connected  and  dependent  one  on  the  other.  He 
must  farther  observe  the  power  of  the  passions  in 
all  their  combinations,  and  trace  their  changes,  as 
modified  by  constitution  or  by  the  accidental  in- 
fluences of  climate  or  custom,  from  the  sprightliness 
of  infancy  to  the  despondency  of  decrepitude ;  he 
must  be  familiar  with  all  the  modes  of  life ;  and, 
above  all,  endeavor  to  discriminate  the  essential 
from  the  accidental,  to  divest  himself  of  the  preju- 
dices of  his  own  age  and  country,  and,  disregarding 
temporary  fashions  and  local  taste,  learn  to  see 
nature  and  beauty  in  the  abstract,  and  rise  to  gen- 
eral and  transcendental  truth,  which  will  always  be 
the  same."  These  are  noble  sentences,  and  wor- 
thy of  the  regard  of  those  who  paint  the  mind, 
who  are  employed  in  intellectual  portraiture,  and 
whose  work  is  to  survive  all  material  fabrics. 

Mr.  Opie  died  on  the  ninth  day  of  April,  1807. 
During  his  sickness  he  imagined  himself  to  be 
occupied  in  his  favorite  pursuit,  and  continued 
painting,  in  idea,  till  death  interposed.  He  was 
interred  in  St.  Paul's  cathedral,  near  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds. 

"In  person,"  says  Allan  Cunningham,  from 
whom  we  have  compiled  the  preceding  biography, 


JOHN  OPIE. 


201 


"  Opie  looked  like  an  inspired  peasant.  Even  in 
his  more  courtly  days  there  was  a  country  air 
about  him,  and  he  was  abrupt  in  his  language  and 
careless  in  his  dress,  without  being  conscious  of 
either.  His  looks  savored  of  melancholy ;  some 
have  said  of  moroseness.  The  portrait  which  he 
has  left  of  himself  shows  a  noble  foreheac^and  an 
intellectual  eye.  There  are  few  who  cannot  feel 
his  talents,  and  all  must  admire  his  fortitude.  He 
came  coarse  and  uneducated  from  the  country  into 
the  polished  circles  of  London,  was  caressed,  in- 
vited, praised  and  patronized  for  one  little  year 
or  so,  and  then  the  giddy  tide  of  fashion  receded ; 
but  he  was  not  left  a  wreck ;  he  had  that  strength 
of  mind  which  triumphs  over  despair.  He  esti- 
mated the  patronage  of  fickle  ignorance  at  what  it 
was  worth,  and  lived  to  invest  his  name  with  a 
brighter,  as  wrell  as  a  steadier,  halo  than  that  of 
fashionable  wonders. 


NATHANIEL  SMITH. 


Nathaniel  Smith  was  born  at  Woodbury,  in 
the  State  of  Connecticut,  January  6,  1762.  He 
was  destitute  of  the  means  of  an  early  education, 
and,  while  yet  a  youth,  was  actively  and  success- 
fully engaged  in  pursuits  in  which  he  discovered 
such  discretion  and  strength  of  intellect  as  prom- 
ised future  eminence.  An  incident,  of  no  great 
importance  in  itself,  induced  him  to  enter  upon 
the  study  of  the  profession  of  law.  Having  en- 
gaged in  this  pursuit,  he  persevered  in  it  with 
surprising  constancy  of  purpose,  unappalled  by 
difficulties,  which  ordinary  minds  would  have 
deemed  entirely  insurmountable.  He  studied  un- 
der the  direction  of  the  celebrated  judge  Tapping 
Reeve,  of  Litchfield,  founder  of  the  law-school  in 
that  place,  and  the  sound  and  enlightened  guide 
of  many  young  men  who  have  become  eminent  in 
their  profession.  Probably  no  individual  who  has 
lived  in  this  country  has  done  so  much  as  judge 
Reeve,  in  implanting  in  the  breasts  of  lawyers  the 
great  principles  of  morality  and  religion. 

Mr.  Smith  entered  the  office  of  judge  Reeve 
about  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and 
such  was  his  progress  as  to  afford  proof  of  the 
soundness  of  his  judgment  in  the  choice  of  his 
profession.  In  1787,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
and  his  first  efforts  showed  a  mind  of  a  superior 
order.  Though  surrounded  by  powerful  com- 
petitors, he  soon  rose  to  distinction,  and  was  pro- 
nounced an  able  advocate. 


NATHANIEL  SMITH.  203 

.  In  1795,  Yale  college  bestowed  on  him  the 
*  honorary  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  in  the 
same  year  he  was  chosen  Representative  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  where  he  continued 
four  years.  On  his  declining  a  third  election  to 
Congress,  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  upper 
house  (Senate,)  of  his  native  State,  in  which  office 
he  was  continued  by  annual  election  for  several 
years.  In  these  various  stations  he  acquired  great 
respect  for  his  manly  eloquence,  his  firmness,  his 
political  integrity,  and  his  comprehensive  views. 
In  October,  1806,  he  was  appointed  a  judge  of  the 
supreme  court.  This  office  he  accepted  at  a  great 
pecuniary  sacrifice,  as  thereby  he  relinquished  his 
lucrative  and  extensive  professional  employments. 
He  remained  in  this  important  office  until  May, 
1819. 

Not  having  had  the  advantages  of  early  in- 
struction and  discipline,  his  style  and  manner  of 
speaking  showed  nothing  of  the  polished  refine- 
ment of  the  scholar,  but  it  manifested  that  which 
is  of  far  greater  value,  a  mind  thoroughly  disci- 
plined, acquainted  with  the  subjects  on  which  it 
was  occupied,  and  intensely  engaged  in  convincing 
the  understandings  of  his  hearers.  In  his  argu- 
ments at  the  bar,  in  his  speeches  before  delibera- 
tive assemblies,  and  in  his  opinions  on  the  bench, 
he  discussed  nothing  but  the  merits  of  the  question ; 
and  here  he  always  appeared,  as  in  truth  he  was, 
'  an  able  man.  His  language  was  not  classical,  but 
appropriate,  his  eloquence  was  not  ornamented, 
but  powerful ;  it  fixed  attention  and  produced 
conviction.  He  never  sought  to  display  qualities 
which  he  did  not  possess.  He  reasoned  according 
to  the  strict  rules  of  logic,  without  ever  having 


204  NATHANIEL  SMITH. 

6tudied  them  —  he  spoke  well,  without  any  theo- 
retical knowledge  of  the  arts  of  the  rhetorician. 
To  a  mind  naturally  strong  and  thoroughly  disci- 
plined he  added  so  much  knowledge  of  the  tech- 
nicalities and  forms  of  the  law,  as  enabled  him  to 
discern  the  nature  of  the  questions  submitted  to 
him,  and,  with  the  aid  of  his  own  resources,  +o 
decide  correctly  in  cases  of  doubt  and  difficulty. 
To  obstacles  which  could  be  overcome  he  never 
yielded.  The  powers  of  his  mind  rose  with  every 
difficulty  which  he  had  to  encounter,  and  he  ap- 
peared to  be  the  strongest  when  sustaining  the 
heaviest  weight. 

Judge  Smith  was  never  a  skeptic  in  religion. 
He  always  entertained  great  regard  for  Christiani- 
ty. He  had,  notwithstanding,  doubts  respecting 
the  reality  of  that  change  which  is  produced  in 
the  hearts  of  men  by  the  influence  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  At  length,  at  the  age  of  forty-six  years, 
in  the  full  possession  of  his  understanding,  and  at 
a  time  when  his  imagination  could  not  lead  him 
astray,  and  in  the  hour  of  calm  and  deliberate  re- 
flection, he  believed  that  such  a  change  was  pro- 
duced in  his  own  bosom.  Under  its  influence  he 
afterwards  lived.  His  religious  impressions  were 
kept  entirely  concealed,  for  a  time,  from  his  most 
intimate  friends.  This  proceeded,  as  is  supposed, 
from  an  excessive  delicacy  as  well  as  from  a  mis- 
taken sense  of  duty.  Placed  as  he  was  in  a  high 
and  responsible  office,  and  fearing  that,  in  his 
situation,  an  avQwal  of  his  faith  in  Christ  might 
be  attributed  to  improper  motives,  he  retained  his 
feelings  within  his  own  breast.  When  his  situa- 
tion in  relation  to  the  public  became  such  as  to 
prevent  any  misconstruction  of  his  motives,  he 


NATHANIEL  SMITH. 


205 


hesitated  no  longer  to  profess  bis  belief  in  religious 
truth,  and  his  high  hopes  growing  out  of  it.  His 
trust  in  the  merits  and  grace  of  the  Redeemer  of 
men  cheered  and  supported  him  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days. 

He  died  in  the  calm  and  blessed  expectation  of 
eternal  life,  at  Woodbury,  on  the  ninth  of  March, 
1822,  in  the  sixty-first  year  of  his  age. 


18 


JOHN  GODFREY  VON  HERDER. 


This  distinguished  author  was  born  on  the 
25th  of  August,  1744,  at  Mohrangen,  a  small 
town  in  Eastern  Prussia,  where  his  father  taught 
a  school  for  girls.  His  early  education  was  not 
favorable  to  the  development  of  his  faculties. 
His  father  confined  his  reading  to  a  very  few 
books,  but  his  love  of  learning  was  so  strong  as  to 
lead  him  to  prosecute  his  studies  in  secret.  The 
clergyman  of  the  place  employed  the  boy  as  a 
copyist,  and  soon  discovered  his  talents,  and 
allowed  him  to  participate  in  the  lessons  in  Latin 
and  Greek,  which  he  gave  his  own  children.  At 
this  time  young  Herder  suffered  from  a  serious 
disease  of  the  eyes,  which  was  the  occasion  of 
his  becoming  better  known  to  a  Russian  surgeon, 
who  lived  in  the  clergymen's  house,  and  who  was 
struck  with  the  engaging  manners,  and  pleasing 
appearance  of  the  youth.  He  offered  to  take 
Herder  with  him  to  Konigsberg  and  to  Peters- 
burg, and  to  teach  him  surgery  gratuitously. 
Herder,  who  had  no  hopes  of  being  able  to  follow 
his  inclinations,  left  his  native  city  in  17G2 ;  but, 
in  Konigsberg,  he  fainted  at  the  first  dissection  at 
which  he  was  present.  He  now  resolved  to  study 
theology.  Some  gentlemen  to  whom  he  became 
known,  and  who  immediately  interested  them- 
selves in  his  favor,  procured  him  an  appointment 
in  Frederic's  College,  where  he  was  at  first  tutor 
to  some  scholars,  and,  at  a  later  period,  instructor 


JOHN  GODFREY  VON  ITERDER.  207 

in  the  first  philosophical,  and  in  the  second  Latin 
class,  which  left  him  time  to  study.  During  this 
period  he  became  known  to  the  celebrated  Kant, 
who  permitted  him  to  hear  all  his  lectures  gratu- 
itously. He  formed  a  more  intimate  acquaintance 
with  Hamann.  His  unrelaxing  diligence  pene- 
trated the  most  various  branches  of  science, 
theology,  philosophy,  philology,  natural  and  civil 
history,  and  politics.  In  1764,  he  was  appointed 
an  assistant  teacher  at  the  cathedral  school  of 
Riga,  with  which  office  that  of  a  preacher  was 
connected.  His  pupils  in  school,  as  well  as  his 
hearers  at  church,  were  enthusiastically  attached 
to  him,  so  much  that  it  was  thought  necessary  to 
give  him  a  more  spacious  church.  His  sermons 
were  distinguished  by  simplicity,  united  with  a 
sincere  devotion  to  evangelical  truth  and  original 
investigation.  While  on  a  visit  io  Strasburg,  in 
1767,  he  was  invited  to  become  court  preacher, 
superintendent  and  consistorial  counsellor,  at 
Biickeburg,  whither  he  proceeded  in  1771.  He 
soon  made  himself  known  as  a  distinguished 
theologian,  and,  in  1775,  was  offered  a  professor- 
ship at  Gottingen,  which  he  however,  did  not 
accept  immediately,  because  the  king  had  not  con- 
firmed his  appointment  unconditionally;  and, 
contrary  to  custom,  he  was  expected  to  undergo  a 
kind  of  examination.  But,  being  married,  Her- 
der did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  decline  the  appoint- 
ment. On  the  very  day  when  he  had  resolved  to 
go  to  Gottingen,  he  received  an  invitation  to 
become  court  preacher,  general  superintendent 
and  consistorial  counsellor  at  Weimar.  This 
appointment  was  through  the  influence  of  Gothe. 
He  arrived  at  Weimar  in  October,  1776.    It  was 


208  JOHN  GODFREY  VON  HERDER. 

at  the  time  when  the  duke  Augustus  and  the 
princess  Amelia  had  collected  many  of  the  most 
distinguished  German  literati  at  their  court. 
Weimar  was  greatly  benefited  by  Herder's  labors 
as  a  pulpit  orator,  inspector  of  the  schools  >  of  the 
country,  the  patron  of  merit  and  founder  of  many 
excellent  institutions.  In  1801,  he  was  made 
president  of  the  high  consistory,  a  place  never 
before  given  to  a  person  not  of  the  nobility. 
Herder  was  subsequently  made  a  nobleman  by 
the  elector  of  Bavaria.  He  says  himself  that  he 
accepted  the  rank  for  the  sake  of  his  children. 
Herder  died,  on  the  18th  of  December,  1803. 
Germany  is  deeply  indebted  to  him  for  his  valua- 
ble works  in  almost  every  branch  of  literature,  and 
few  authors  have  had  a  greater  influence  upon  the 
public  taste  in  that  country.  His  works  were 
published  in  forty-five  octavo  volumes,  in  1806. 
Another  edition  is  now  publishing  in  sixty  small 
volumes.  As  a  theologian,  Herder  contributed 
to  a  better  understanding  of  the  historical  and 
antiquarian  parts  of  the  Old  Testament.  "In 
early  years,"  says  Herder,  "  when  the  fields  of 
knowledge  lay  before  me,  with  all  the  glow  of  a 
morning  sun,  from  which  the  meridian  sun  of  life 
takes  away  so  much  of  the  charm,  the  idea  often 
recurred  to  my  mind,  whether,  like  other  great 
subjects  of  thought,  each  of  which  has  its  philoso- 
phy and  science,  that  subject  also,  which  lies 
nearest  to  our  hearts  —  the  history  of  mankind, 
viewed  as  a  whole  —  might  not  also  have  its 
philosophy  and  science.  Every  thing  reminded 
me  of  this  idea ;  metaphysics  and  morals,  natural 
philosophy  and  natural  history  lastly,  and  most 
powerfully,  religion."    This  is  the  key  to  Herder's 


JOHN  GODFREY  VON  HERDER.  209 

life.  The  object  of  his  investigations  was  to  find 
the  point  from  which  he  might  calmly  survey 
every  thing,  and  see  how  all  things  converge. 
"  It  is,"  says  Frederic  Schlegel,  "  the  very  per- 
ception and  feeling  of  the  poetical,  in  the  character 
of  natural  legends,  which  forms  the  most  distin- 
guishing feature  in  the  genius  of  Herder.  He 
has  an  energy  of  fancy  by  which  he  is  enabled  to 
transport  himself  into  the  spirit  and  poetry  of 
every  age  and  people.  The  poetry  of  the  He- 
brews was  that  which  most  delighted  him.  He 
may  be  called  the  mythologist  of  German  litera- 
ture, on  account  of  this  gift,  this  universal  feeling 
of  the  spirit  of  antiquity.  His  power  of  entering 
into  all  the  shapes  and  manifestations  of  fancy, 
implies  in  himself  a  very  high  degree  of  imagina- 
tion. His  mind  seems  to  have  been  cast  in  so 
universal  a  mould,  that  he  might  have  attained  to 
equal  eminence,  either  as  a  poet  or  philosopher." 

Notwithstanding  his  genius,  Herder  had  great 
difficulties  to  surmount ;  want  of  early  education 
and  encouragement,  poverty,  and  a  serious  and 
lasting  disease  of  the  eyes.  He  was  a  most 
laborious  and  indefatigable  student.  He  did  not 
attempt  to  arrive  at  truth  by  metaphysical  specu- 
lation, but  by  observation,  by  the  constant  study 
of  nature  and  the  mind,  in  all  its  works,  in  the 
arts,  law,  language,  religion,  medicine,  poetry,  &c. 

In  1819,  the  grand  duke  of  Weimar  ordered  a 
tablet  of  cast  iron  »to  be  placed  on  his  grave,  with 
the  inscription,  Licht,  Liebe  Leben.  Light,  Love, 
Life. 


18* 


GIOVANNI  BATTISTA  BELZONI. 


This  enterprising  traveller  was  born  at  Padua, 
Italy,  in  1778,  where  his  father  was  a  barber. 
The  family,  however,  had  belonged  originally  to 
Rome  ;  and  it  is  related  that  Belzoni,  when  only 
thirteen  years  of  age,  betrayed  his  disposition  for 
travelling,  by  setting  out  one  day  along  with  his 
younger  brother  to  make  his  way  to  that  city, 
which  lie  had  long  been  haunted  with  a  passionate 
desire  to  see,  from  hearing  his  parents  so  often 
speak  of  it.  The  failing  strength  and  courage  of 
his  brother,  however,  forced  him  to  relinquish  this 
expedition,  after  they  had  proceeded  as  far  as  the 
Apennines ;  and  he  returned  to  assist  his  father 
once  more  in  his  shop,  as  he  had  already,  for  some 
time,  been  doing.  But  when  he  was  three  years 
older,  nothing  could  detain  him  any  longer  in  his 
native  place  ;  and  he  again  took  the  road  to  Rome, 
which  lie  now  actually  reached.  It  is  said  that 
on  his  first  arrival  in  this  capital,  he  applied  him- 
self to  the  acquirement  of  a  knowledge  of  the  art 
of  constructing  machines  for  the  conveyance  and 
raising  of  water,  with  the  view  probably  of  ob- 
taining a  livelihood  by  the  exhibition  of  curious 
or  amusing  experiments  in  that  department  of 
physics.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  he  eventu- 
ally adopted  the  profession  of  a  monk.  The 
arrival  of  Bonaparte  in  Italy,  in  1800,  brought 
him  the  opportunity,  which  he  embraced,  of 
throwing  off  his  monastic  habit ;  being,  by  this 


GIOVANNI  BATTISTA  BELZONI.  211 


time,  heartily  tired  of  the  idleness  and  obscurity 
to  which  it  consigned  him.    He  then  pursued,  for 
some  time,  a  wandering  life,  having,  in  the  first 
instance,  returned  to  his  native  town,  and  then 
proceeded  in  quest  of  employment  to  Holland, 
from  whence,  in  about  a  year  afterwards,  he  came 
back  to  Italy.    By  this  time  he  had  attained  so 
uncommon  a  height,  with  strength  proportioned 
to  it,  that  he  was  an  object  of  wonder  wherever 
he  was  seen.    It  was  probably  with  the  expecta- 
tion of  being  able  to  turn  these  personal  advan- 
tages to  account,  that  he  determined,  in  1803,  to 
go  over  to  England.    On  arriving  there,  accord- 
ingly, he  first  attempted  to  gain  a  maintenance  by 
walking  over  the  country  exhibiting  hydraulic 
experiments,  and  feats  of  muscular  strength  ;  and 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  an  Englishwoman  whom 
he  had  married  soon  after  his  arrival,  he  visited 
with  this  object  all  the  principal  towns  both  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,    lie  continued  for 
about  nine  years  in  England.    In  1812,  he  sailed 
with  his  wife  for  Lisbon.    After  spending  some 
time  in  that  city,  he  proceeded  to  Madrid,  where 
he  attracted  considerable  attention  by  his  perform- 
ances.   From  Spain  he  went  to  Malta  ;  and  here, 
it  is  supposed,  the  idea  first  suggested  itself  to 
him  of  passing  over  to  Egypt,  as  others  of  his 
countrymen  had  already  done,  and  offering  his 
services  to  the  Pacha,  the  active  and  enterprising 
Mohammed    Ali.    Accordingly,    carrying  with 
him  a  recommendation  from  a  Maltese  agent  of 
the  Pacha's,  he  proceeded,  still  accompanied  by 
his  wife,  to  Cairo.    On  presenting  himself  to  Ali, 
he  was  immediately  engaged,  on  the  strength  of 
his  professed  skill  in  hydraulics,  to  construct  a 


212  GIOVANNI  BATTISTA  BELZONI. 


machine  for  watering  some  pleasure  gardens  at 
Soubra,  on  the  Nile.  This  undertaking,  it  is  said, 
he  accomplished  to  the  Pacha's  satisfaction ;  but 
an  accident  having  occurred  to  one  of  the  persons 
looking  on,  at  the  first  trial  of  the  machine,  the 
Turkish  superstition,  under  the  notion  that  what 
had  happened  was  a  bad  omen,  would  not  suffer 
the  use  of  it  to  be  continued.  Belzoni  was  once 
more  thrown  on  his  own  resources,  probably  as 
much  at  a  loss  as  ever,  what  course  to  adopt. 

At  this  time,  the  late  Mr.  Salt,  the  learned 
orientalist,  was  English  Consul  in  Egypt,  and 
embracing  the  opportunity  which  his  situation 
afforded  him,  was  actively  employed  in  investi- 
gating and  making  collections  of  the  remains  of 
antiquity  with  which  that  country  abounded.  For 
this  purpose  he  kept  several  agents  in  his  employ- 
ment, whose  business  it  was  to  make  researches, 
in  all  directions,  after  interesting  objects  of  this 
description.  To  Mr.  Salt,  Belzoni  now  offered 
his  services  in  this  capacity,  and  he  was  imme- 
diately employed  by  that  gentleman,  in  an  affair 
of  considerable  difficulty :  the  removing  and 
transporting  to  Alexandria  of  the  colossal  granite 
bust  of  Memnon,  which  lay  buried  in  the  sands 
near  Thebes.  The  manner  in  which  Belzoni 
accomplished  this,  his  first  enterprise  in  his  new 
line  of  pursuit,  at  once  established  his  character 
for  energy  and  intelligence.  Dressing  himself  as 
a  Turk,  he  proceeded  to  the  spot,  and  there  half 
persuaded  and  half  terrified  the  peasantry  into 
giving  him  the  requisite  assistance  in  excavating 
and  embarking  the  statue,  till  he  had  at  last  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  it  safely  deposited  in  the 
boat  intended  for  its  conveyance  down  the  Nile. 


GIOVANNI  BATTISTA  BELZOXI. 


213 


It  reached  England,  and  was  placed  in  the  British 
Museum. 

Belzoni  had  now  found  his  proper  sphere,  and 
henceforward  his  whole  soul  was  engaged  in  the 
work  of  exploring  the  wonderful  country  in 
which  he  was,  in  search  of  the  monuments  of  its 
ancient  arts  and  greatness.  In  this  occupation  he 
was  constantly  employed,  sometimes  in  the  service 
of  Mr.  Salt,  and  sometimes  on  his  own  account. 
The  energy  and  perseverance  of  character  which 
he  exhibited,  were  truly  astonishing.  In  despite 
of  innumerable  obstacles,  partly  of  a  physical 
nature,  and  partly  arising  from  the  opposition  of 
the  natives,  he  at  last  succeeded  in  penetrating 
into  the  interior  of  the  temple  of  Ihamboul,  in 
Upper  Egypt,  which  was  so  enveloped  in  sand, 
that  only  its  summit  was  visible.  On  returning 
from  this  expedition,  he  next  undertook  a  journey 
to  the  Valley  of  Bebanel  Malonk,  beyond  Thebes, 
where,  from  a  slight  inspection  on  a  former  occa- 
sion of  the  rocky  sides  of  the  hills,  he  had  been 
led  to  suspect  that  many  tombs  of  the  old  inhab- 
itants would  be  found  concealed  in  them.  For 
some  time  he  searched  in  vain  in  all  directions  for 
any  indication  of  what  he  had  expected  to  find, 
till  at  last  his  attention  was  turned  to  a  small 
fissure  in  the  rock,  which  presented  to  his  experi- 
enced eye  something  like  the  traces  of  human 
labor.  He  put  forward  his  hand  to  examine  it, 
when  the  stones,  on  his  touching  them,  tumbled 
down,  and  discovered  to  him  the  entrance  to  a 
long  passage,  having  its  sides  ornamented  with 
sculpture  and  paintings.  He  at  once  entered  the 
cavern,  proceeded  forward,  and.  after  overleaping 
several  obstacles,  found  himself  in  a  sepulchral 


214  GIOVANNI  BATTISTA  BELZONI. 

chamber,  in  the  centre  of  which  stood  an  alabaster 
sarcophagus,  covered  with  sculptures.  He  after- 
wards examined  this  sarcophagus,  and  with 
immense  labor,  took  exact  copies  of  the  drawings, 
consisting  of  nearly  a  thousand  figures,  and  the 
hierogyphic  inscriptions,  amounting  to  more  than 
five  hundred,  which  he  found  on  the  walls  of  the 
tomb.  It  was  from  these  copies  that  Belzoni 
formed  the  representation  or  model  of  this  tomb, 
which  he  afterwards  exhibited  in  London  and 
Paris. 

On  returning  to  Cairo  from  this  great  discovery, 
he  immediately  engaged  in  a  new  investigation, 
which  conducted  him  to  another  perhaps  still  more 
interesting. 

He  determined  to  make  an  attempt  to  penetrate 
into  one  of  the  pyramids.  At  length  in  the  pyra- 
mid called  Cephrenes,  he  discovered  the  entrance 
to  a  passage  which  led  him  into  the  centre  of  the 
structure.  Here  he  found  a  sepulchral  chamber, 
with  a  sarcophagus  in  the  middle  of  it,  containing 
the  bones  of  a  bull  —  a  discovery,  which  has  been 
considered  as  proving  that  these  immense  edifices 
were  in  reality  erected  by  the  superstition  of  tlie 
old  Egyptians  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  serve 
each  as  a  sepulchre  for  one  of  their  brute  divini- 
ties. 

Encouraged  by  the  splendid  success  which 
attended  his  efforts,  and  which  had  made  his  name 
famous  in  all  parts  of  the  literary  world,  Belzoni 
engaged  in  various  other  enterprises  of  a  similar 
character.  He  also  made  several  journeys  in  thO 
remote  parts  of  Egypt,  and  into  the  adjoining 
regions  of  Africa.  He  set  sail  for  Europe  in 
September,  1819.    The  first  place  which  he  visit* 


GIOVANNI  BATTISTA  BELZONI.  215 


ed  was  his  native  city,  from  which  he  had  been 
absent  nearly  twenty  years.  He  presented  to  the 
Paduans  two  lion-headed  granite  statues,  which 
were  placed  in  a  conspicuous  situation  in  the 
palace  of  Justice.  A  medal  was  at  the  same  time 
struck  in  honor  of  the  giver,  on  which  were  in- 
scribed his  name  and  a  recital  of  his  exploits. 
From  Italy  Belzoni  hastened  to  England,  where 
the  rumor  of  his  discoveries  had  already  excited 
a  greater  interest  than  in  any  other  country.  In 
1820,  an  account  of  his  travels  and  discoveries 
appeared  in  a  quarto  volume,  with  another  volume 
of  plates,  in  folio.  It  soon  passed  through  three 
editions,  while  translations  of  it  into  French  and 
Italian  appeared  at  Paris  and  Milan.  After  this, 
Belzoni  visited  successively,  France,  Russia, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark.  Returning  to  England 
he  undertook,  under  the  auspices  of  government, 
the  perilous  attempt  of  penetrating  into  central 
Africa.  Proceeding  to  Tangiers  he  went  from 
thence  to  Fez.  Unexpected  difficulties  prevented 
his  advancing  in  that  direction.  On  this  disap- 
pointment, he  sailed  for  Madeira,  and  from  thence, 
in  October,  1823,  he  set  out  for  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Benin,  on  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  with 
the  intention  of  making  his  way  to  the  interior 
from  that  point.  A  malady,  however,  attacked 
him  almost  as  soon  as  he  stepped  his  foot  on  shore. 
He  expired  at  Gato,  on  the  3d  of  December, 
1823.  His  remains  were  interred  on  the  shore, 
under  a  plane  tree.  An  inscription  in  English 
was  afterwards  placed  over  his  grave. 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


"  The  ease  which  we  now  find  in  providing  and 
dispersing  what  number  of  copies  of  books  we 
please  by  means  of  the  press,"  says  Dr.  Middleton, 
in  his  Free  Inquiry,  "  makes  us  apt  to  imagine, 
without  considering  the  matter,  that  the  publica- 
tion of  books  was  the  same  easy  affair  in  all 
former  times  as  in  the  present.  But  the  case  was 
quite  different.  For,  when  there  were  no  books 
in  the  world  but  what  were  written  out  by  hand, 
with  great  labor  and  expense,  the  method  of  pub- 
lishing them  was  necessarily  very  slow,  and  the 
price  very  dear ;  so  that  the  rich  and  curious  only 
would  be  disposed  or  able  to  purchase  them ;  and 
to  such,  also,  it  was  difficult  to  procure  them  or  to 
know  even  where  they  were  to  be  bought." 

Of  the  truth  of  these  remarks  of  Dr.  Middleton, 
a  great  variety  of  facts  might  be  brought  forward 
in  proof.  In  1299,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester 
borrowed  a  Bible,  in  two  volumes,  folio,  from  a 
convent  in  that  city,  giving  a  bond,  drawn  up  in 
the  most  formal  and  solemn  manner,  for  its  due 
return.  This  Bible  had  been  given  to  the  convent 
by  a  former  Bishop,  and,  in  consideration  of  this 
gift  and  one  hundred  marks,  the  monks  founded 
a  daily  mass  for  the  soul  of  the  donor.  In  the 
same  century,  several  Latin  Bibles  were  given  to 
the  University  of  Oxford,  on  condition  that  the 
students  who  read  them  should  deposit  a  caution- 
ary pledge.    And  even  after  manuscripts  wore 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


217 


multiplied,  by  the  invention  of  linen  paper,  it  was 
enacted  by  the  statutes  of  St.  Mary's  college,  at 
Oxford,  in  1446,  that  "no  scholar  shall  occupy  a 
book  in  the  library  above  one  hour,  or  two  hours  at 
most,  lest  others  should  be  hindered  from  the  use  of 
the  same."  Money  was  often  lent  on  the  deposit  of 
a  book  ;  and  there  were  public  chests  in  the  univer- 
sities and  other  seminaries,  in  which  the  books  so 
deposited  were  kept  They  were  often  particular- 
ly named  and  described  in  wills,  generally  left  to 
a  relative  or  friend,  in  fee,  and  for  the  term  of  his 
life,  and  afterwards  to  the  library  of  some  religious 
house.  "  When  a  book  was  bought,"  observes  Mr. 
Walton,  "  the  affair  was  of  so  much  importance, 
that  it  was  customary  to  assemble  persons  of  conse- 
quence and  character,  and  to  make  a  formal  record 
that  they  were  present  on  the  occasion."  The 
same  author  adds  :  "  Even  so  late  as  the  year  1471, 
when  Louis  XI,  of  France,  borrowed  the  works 
of  the  Arabian  physician,  Rhasis,  from  the  faculty 
of  medicine,  at  Paris,  he  not  only  deposited,  by 
way  of  a  pledge,  a  valuable  plate,  but  was  obliged 
to  procure  a  nobleman  to  join  with  him  as  party 
in  a  deed,  by  which  he  bound  himself  to  return 
it,  under  a  considerable  forfeiture."  Long  and 
violent  altercations,  and  even  lawsuits,  sometimes 
took  place,  in  consequence  of  the  disputed  proper- 
ty of  a  book. 

Books  were  so  scarce  in  Spain  in  the  tenth 
century,  that  several  monasteries  had  among 
them  only  one  copy  of  the  Bible,  one  of  Jerome's 
Epistles,  and  one  of  several  other  religious  books. 
There  are  some  curious  instances  given  by  Lu- 
pus, abbot  of  Ferrieris,  of  the  extreme  scarcity  of 
classical  manuscripts  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
19 


218  WILLIAM  CAXTOX. 

century.  He  was  much  devoted  to  literature,  and 
from  his  letters  appears  to  have  been  indefatigable 
in  his  endeavors  to  find  out  such  manuscripts,  in 
order  to  borrow  and  copy  them.  In  a  letter  to 
the  pope,  he  earnestly  requests  of  him  a  copy  of 
Quinctilian,  and  of  a  treatise  of  Cicero ;  "  for,"  he 
adds,  "  though  we  have  some  fragments  of  them,  a 
complete  copy  is  not  to  be  found  in  France."  In 
two  other  of  his  letters,  he  requests  of  a  brother 
abbot  the  loan  of  several  manuscripts,  which  he  as- 
sures him  shall  be  copied  and  returned  as  soon  as 
possible,  by  a  faithful  messenger.  Another  time  he 
sent  a  special  messenger  to  borrow  a  manuscript, 
promising  that  he  would  take  very  great  care  of 
it,  and  return  it  by  a  safe  opportunity,  and  re- 
questing the  person  who  lent  it  to  him,  if  he  were 
asked  to  whom  he  had  lent  it,  to  reply  to  some 
near  relation  of  his  own,  who  had  been  very 
urgent  to  borrow  it.  Another  manuscript,  which 
he  seems  to  have  prized  much,  and  a  loan  of  which 
had  been  so  frequently  requested,  that  he  thought 
of  banishing  it  somewhere,  that  it  might  not  be 
destroyed  or  lost,  he  tells  a  friend  he  may  perhaps 
lend  him  when  he  comes  to  see  him,  but  that  he 
will  not  trust  it  to  the  messenger  who  had  been 
sent  for  it,  though  a  monk,  and  trust-worthy,  be- 
cause he  was  travelling  on  foot. 

Respecting  the  price  of  manuscript  books,  we 
are  not  in  the  possession  of  many  facts.  Plato 
paid  one  hundred  minre,  equal  to  £375,  for  three 
small  treatises  by  Philolaus,  the  Pythagorean. 
After  the  death  of  Speusippus,  Plato's  disciple, 
his  books,  few  in  number,  were  purchased  by  Aris- 
totle, for  about  £675.  It  is  said,  that  St.  Jerome 
nearly  ruined  himself  by  the  purchase  of  religiou* 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


210 


works  alone.  Persons  of  moderate  fortunes  could 
not  afford  the  means  of  procuring  them,  nor  the 
rich  even  without  the  sacrifice  of  some  luxuries. 
The  mere  money  which  was  paid  for  them  in  the 
dark  ages,  whenever  a  person  distinguished  him- 
self for  his  love  of  literature,  was  seldom  the  sole 
or  the  principal  expense.  It  was  often  necessary 
to  send  to  a  great  distance  and  to  spend  much  time 
in  finding  out  where  they  were.  In  the  ninth 
century,  an  English  bishop  was  obliged  to  make 
five  journeys  to  Rome,  principally  in  order  to 
purchase  books.  For  one  of  his  books  thus  pro- 
cured, king  Alfred  gave  him  an  estate  of  eight 
hides  of  land,  or  as  much  as  eight  ploughs  could 
till.  About  the  period  of  the  invention  of  cotton 
paper,  1174,  the  homilies  of  St.  Bede  and  St. 
Augustine's  Psalter  were  bought  by  a  prior  in 
Winchester,  from  the  monks  of  Dorchester,  in 
Oxfordshire,  for  twelve  measures  of  barley  and  a 
pall  richly  emroidered  in  silver. 

Stow  informs  us,  that  in  1274,  a  Bible,  in  nine 
volumes,  fairly  written,  with  a  gloss,  or  comment, 
sold  for  fifty  marks,  or  £33  6<s.  8c?.  About  this 
time  the  price  of  wheat  averaged  3s.  4d.  a  quarter, 
a  laborer's  wages  were  one  and  a  half  pence  a  day, 
a  harvest-man's,  two  pence.  On  a  blank  page  of 
Comestor's  Scholastic  History,  deposited  in  the 
British  museum,  it  is  stated  that  this  manuscript 
was  taken  from  the  king  of  France,  at  the  battle 
of  Poictiers.  It  was  afterwards  purchased  by  the 
earl  of  Salisbury  for  a  hundred  marks,  or  £66 
13s.  4d.  It  was  directed,  by  the  last  will  of  his 
countess,  to  be  sold  for  forty  livres.  At  this  time 
the  king's  surgeon's  pay  was  £5.  13s.  4td.  per 
annum,  and  one  shilling  a  day  besides-  Master- 


220 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


carpenters  had  four  pence  a  day ;  their  servants 
two  pence. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  some 
books  were  bequeathed  to  Merton  college,  Oxford, 
of  which  the  following  are  the  names  and  valua- 
tion. A  Scholastic  History,  twenty  shillings;  a 
Concordance,  ten  shillings  ;  the  four  greater  proph- 
ets, with  glosses,  five  shillings;  a  Psalter,  with 
glosses,  ten  shillings ;  St.  Austin  on  Genesis,  ten 
shillings.  About  the  year  1400,  a  copy  of  the 
Roman  de  la  Ron  was  sold  before  the  palace-gate, 
at  Paris,  for  £33  65.  6d.  The  countess  of  Anjou 
paid  for  a  copy  of  the  homilies  of  Bishop  Haiman, 
two  hundred  sheep,  five  quarters  of  wheat,  five 
quarters  of  barley,  and  five  quarters  of  millet. 
On  the  conquest  of  Paris,  in  1425,  the  duke  of 
Bedford  sent  the  royal  library  to  England.  It 
consisted  of  only  eight  hundred  and  fifty-three 
volumes,  but  it  was  valued  at  more  than  two 
thousand  two  hundred  pounds  sterling.  Further 
facts  of  a  similar  character  will  be  found  in  the 
life  of  the  individual  to  which  we  now  proceed. 

William  Caxton  was  born  in  the  weald  of 
Kent,  England,  about  the  year  1412.  At  this 
period  learning  of  all  kinds  was  in  a  much  more 
depressed  state  in  England  than  in  most  of  the 
continental  countries,  in  consequence,  principally, 
of  the  civil  war  in  which  the  nation  was  em- 
broiled, the  habits  of  restlessness  thus  produced, 
and  the  constant  preoccupation  of  the  time  and 
thoughts  of  men  in  promoting  the  cause  they  es- 
poused, and  in  protecting  their  lives  and  property. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  most  plain  and 
common  education  was  often  neglected.  Caxton's 
parents,  however,  performed  their  duty  to  him 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


221 


«  I  am  bounden,"  says  he,  "  to  pray  for  my  father 
and  mother,  that,  in  my  youth  sent  me  to  school, 
by  which,  by  the  sufferance  of  God,  I  get  my 
living,  I  hope,  truly." 

When  he  was  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  he  was 
put  an  apprentice  to  William  Large,  a  mercer  of 
London,  and  afterwards  mayor.  The  name  mercer 
was  given  at  that  time  to  general  merchants,  trad- 
ing in  all  kinds  of  goods.  After  he  had  served 
his  apprenticeship,  Caxton  took  up  his  freedom  in 
the  mercer's  company,  and  became  a  citizen  of 
London.  Some  subsequent  years  he  spent  in 
travelling  in  various  countries  on  the  continent  of 
Europe.  In  1464,  he  was  appointed  ambassador 
to  the  court  of  the  duke  of  Burgundy.  During 
his  residence  in  the  Low  Countries  he  acquired  or 
perfected  his  knowledge  of  the  French  language, 
gained  some  knowledge  of  Flemish  or  Dutch, 
imbibed  a  taste  for  literature  and  romance,  and, 
at  great  expense,  made  himself  master  of  the  art 
of  printing. 

About  1472,  Caxton  returned  to  England,  and 
introduced,  in  all  probability,  the  art  of  printing 
into  that  country.  The  common  opinion  is  that 
the  "  Game  of  Chess  "  was  the  first  book  printed 
by  Caxton,  though  Mr.  Dibdin  thinks  that  the 
"  Romance  of  Jason  "  was  printed  before  it.  Cax- 
ton was  most  indefatigable  in  cultivating  his  art. 
Besides  the  labor  necessarily  attached  to  his  press, 
he  translated  not  fewer  than  five  thousand  closely 
printed  folio  pages,  though  well  strieken  in  years. 
The  productions  of  his  press  amount  to  sixty-four. 
In  1480,  he  published  his  Chronicle,  and  his  De- 
scription of  Britain,  which  is  usually  subjoined  to 
It  These  were  very  popular,  having  been  re- 
19* 


222 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


printed  four  times  in  this  century  and  seven  times 
in  the  sixteenth  century. 

"  After  divers  works,"  says  he,  "  made,  trans- 
lated and  achieved,  having  no  work  in  hand,  I, 
sitting  in  my  study,  where,  as  lay  many  divers 
pamphlets  and  books,  it  happened  that  to  my  hand 
came  a  little  book  in  French,  which  lately  was 
translated  out  of  Latin,  by  some  noble  clerk  of 
France,  which  book  is  named  '  ^Eneid,'  as  made 
in  Latin  by  that  noble  person  and  great  clerk, 
Virgil,  which  book  I  saw  over,  and  read  therein. 
(He  then  describes  the  contents.)  In  which  book 
I  had  great  pleasure,  by  cause  of  the  fair  and 
honest  terms  and  words  in  French,  which  I  never 
saw  tofore  like,  ne  none  so  pleasant,  ne  so  well 
ordered;  which  book,  as  me  seemed,  should  be 
much  requisite  to  noble  men  to  see,  as  well  for  the 
eloquence  as  histories.  And  when  I  had  advised 
me  in  this  said  book,  I  deliberated,  and  concluded 
to  translate  it  into  English ;  and  forthwith  took  a 
pen  and  ink  and  wrote  a  leaf  or  twain,  which  I 
oversaw  again,  to  correct  it ;  and  when  I  saw  the 
fair  and  strange  terms  therein,  I  doubted  that  it 
should  not  please  some  gentlemen  which  late 
blamed  me,  saying  that  in  my  former  translations 
I  had  over  curious  terms,  which  could  not  be  un- 
derstood of  common  people  ;  and  desired  me  to 
use  old  and  homely  terms  in  my  translations ;  and 
fain  would  I  satisfy  every  man,  and  so  to  do,  took 
an  old  book  and  read  therein ;  and  certainly  the 
English  was  so  rude  and  broad,  that  I  could  not 
well  understand  it ;  and  also,  my  lord  abbot  of 
Westminster,  did  do  show  to  me  late  certain  evi- 
dences, written  in  old  English,  for  to  reduce  it 
into  our  English  now  used ;  and  certainly  it  was 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


223 


written  in  such  wise,  that  was  more  like  to  Dutch 
than  to  English.  I  could  not  reduce,  nor  bring  it 
to  be  understanden.  Certainly  the  language  now 
used  varieth  far  from  that  which  was  used  and 
spoken  when  I  was  born ;  for  we,  Englishmen, 
been  born  under  the  domination  of  the  moon, 
which  is  never  at  rest,  but  ever  wavering.  The 
most  quantity  of  the  people  understand  not  Latin 
nor  French  in  this  realm  of  England." 

Caxton  seems  to  have  been  much  puzzled  and 
perplexed  about  the  language  he  should  use  in  his 
traslations;  for,  while  some  advised  him  to  use 
old  and  homely  terms,  others,  "  honest  and  great 
clerks,"  he  adds,  "  have  been  with  me,  and  desired 
me  to  write  the  most  curious  terms  that  I  could 
find,  —  and  thus,  betwixt  plain,  rude  and  curious, 
I  stand  abashed." 

Among  the  books  which  Caxton  published  were 
two  editions  of  Chaucer's  Tales.  He  seems  to 
have  had  a  veneration  for  the  memory  of  this 
poet,  and  to  have  formed,  with  sound  judgment 
and  good  taste,  a  most  correct  and  precise  estimate 
of  the  peculiar  merits  of  his  poetry.  As  a  proof 
of  the  former,  we  may  mention,  that  Caxton,  at 
his  own  expense,  procured  a  long  epitiaph  to  be 
written  in  honor  of  Chaucer,  which  was  hung  on 
a  pillar  near  the  poet's  grave  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  The  following  remarks  of  Caxton  show 
that  he  was  able  thoroughly  to  relish  the  merits 
and  beauties  of  Chaucer's  poetry.  "  We  ought  to 
give  a  singular  laud  unto  that  noble  and  great 
philosopher,  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  the  which,  for  his 
ornate  writings  in  our  tongue,  may  well  have  the 
name  of  a  laureate  poet.  For  tofore,  that  he  em- 
bellished and  ornated  and  made  fair  our  English, 


224 


WILLIAM  CAXTON. 


in  this  realm  was  made  rude  speech  and  incongru- 
ous, as  yet  appeareth  by  old  books,  which,  at  this 
day  ought  not  to  have  place,  ne  be  compared  unto 
his  beauteous  volumes  and  ornate  writings,  of 
whom  he  made  many  books  and  treatises  of  many 
a  noble  history,  as  well  in  metre  as  in  rhyme  and 
prose ;  and  then  so  craftily  made,  that  he  com- 
prehended his  matters  in  short,  quick  and  high 
sentences,  eschewing  perplexity ;  casting  away 
the  chaff  of  superfluity,  and  showing  the  picked 
grain  of  sentence,  uttered  by  crafty  and  sugared 
eloquence.  In  all  his  works  he  excelled,  in  mine 
opinion,  all  writers  in  our  English,  for  he  writeth 
no  void  words,  but  all  his  matter  is  full  of  high 
and  quick  sentence,  to  whom  ought  to  be  given 
laud  and  praise  for  his  noble  making  and  writing." 

Caxton  died  in  1490-1,  was  buried  in  St. 
Margaret's,  and  left  some  books  to  that  church. 
"  His  character,"  says  his  biographer,  "  may  be 
collected  from  the  account  we  have  given  of  his 
labors.  He  was  possessed  of  good  sense  and  sound 
judgment ;  steady,  persevering,  active,  zealous 
and  liberal  in  his  services  for  that  important  art 
which  he  introduced  into  England ;  laboring  not 
only  as  printer,  but  as  translator  and  editor." 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


Richard  Baxter  was  born  on  the  12th  of 
November,  1615,  at  Rowton,  in  Shropshire,  Eng- 
land. Here  he  spent,  with  his  grandfather,  the 
first  ten  years  of  his  life.  His  father  was  a  free- 
holder, and  possessed  of  a  moderate  estate ;  but 
having  been  addicted  to  gaming  in  his  youth,  his 
property  become  so  deeply  involved,  that  much 
care  and  frugality  were  required  to  disencumber 
it  at  a  future  period  of  his  life.  He  became  a 
pious  man  about  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Richard. 
To  him  the  lad  was  indebted  for  his  first  religious 
instructions.  There  must  have  been  in  Richard, 
when  a  child,  some  striking  indications  of  religious 
feeling,  for  his  father  remarked  to  Dr.  Bates,  that 
he  would  even  then  reprove  the  improper  conduct 
of  other  children,  to  the  astonishment  of  those 
who  heard  him.  Baxter's  early  impressions  and 
convictions,  though  often  like  the  morning  cloud 
and  early  dew,  were  never  entirely  dissipated,  but 
at  last  fully  established  themselves  in  a  permanent 
influence  on  his  character.  His  early  education 
was  very  imperfectly  conducted.  From  six  to 
ten  years  of  age,  he  was  under  the  four  successive 
curates  of  the  parish,  two  of  whom  never  preach- 
ed, and  the  two,  who  had  the  most  learning  of  the 
four,  drank  themselves  to  beggary,  and  then  left 
the  place.  At  the  age  of  ten,  he  was  removed  to 
his  father's  house,  where  Sir  William  Rogers,  a 
blind  old  man,  was  parson.    One  of  his  curates, 


226 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


who  had  succeeded  a  person  who  was  driven 
away  on  being  discovered  to  have  officiated  under 
forged  orders,  was  Baxter's  principal  schoolmas- 
ter. This  man  had  been  a  lawyer's  clerk,  but 
hard  drinking  drove  him  from  that  profession,  and 
he  turned  curate  for  a  piece  of  bread.  He 
preached  only  once  in  Baxter's  time,  and  then 
was  drunk!  From  such  men  what  instruction 
could  be  expected !  How  wretched  must  the 
state  of  the  country  have  been,  when  they  could 
be  tolerated  either  as  teachers  or  ministers  !  His 
next  instructer,  who  loved  him  much,  he  tells  us 
was  a  grave  and  eminent  man,  and  expected  to  be 
made  a  bishop.  He  also,  however,  disappointed 
him  ;  for  during  no  less  than  two  years,  he  never 
instructed  him  one  hour ;  but  spent  his  time,  for 
the  most  part,  in  talking  against  the  Puritans.  In 
his  study,  he  remembered  to  have  seen  no  Greek 
book  but  the  New  Testament;  the  only  father 
was  Augustine  de  Civitate  Dei ;  there  were  a 
few  common  modern  English  works,  and  for  the 
most  of  the  year,  the  priest  studied  Bishop  And- 
rews' Sermons.  Of  Mr.  John  Owen,  master  of 
the  free  school  at  Wroxeter,  he  speaks  more  re- 
spectfully. To  him  he  was  chiefly  indebted  for 
his  classical  instruction.  He  seems  to  have  been 
a  respectable  man,  and  under  him,  Baxter  had 
for  his  schoolfellows  the  two  sons  of  Sir  Richard 
Newport,  (one  of  whom  became  Lord  Newport,) 
and  Dr.  Richard  Allestree,  who  afterwards  was 
Regius  professor  of  divinity  at  Oxford,  and  pro- 
vost of  Eton  college.  When  fitted  for  the  univer- 
sity, his  master  recommended  that,  instead  of 
being  sent  to  it,  he  should  be  put  under  the  tuition 
of  Mr.  Richard  Wickstead,  chaplain  to  the  cour- 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


227 


cil  at  Ludlow,  who  was  allowed  by  the  king  to 
have  a  single  pupil.  But  he  also  neglected  hig 
trust.  The  only  advantage  young  Baxter  had 
with  him,  was  the  enjoyment  of  time  and  books* 
"  Considering  the  great  neglect,"  says  Mr.  Orine, 
his  biographer,  "  of  suitable  and  regular  instruc- 
tion, which  Baxter  experienced  in  his  youth,  it  is 
wonderful  that  he  ever  rose  to  eminence.  Such 
disadvantages  are  very  rarely  altogether  conquer- 
ed. But  the  strength  of  his  genius,  the  ardor  of 
his  mind,  and  the  power  of  his  religious  principles, 
compensated  for  minor  defects,  subdued  every 
difficulty,  and  bore  down,  with  irresistible  energy, 
every  obstacle  that  had  been  placed  in  his  way." 

During  his  short  residence  at  Ludlow  castle, 
Baxter  made  a  narrow  escape  from  acquiring  a 
taste  for  gaming,  of  which  he  gives  a  curious  ac- 
count. The  best  gamester  in  the  house  undertook 
to  teach  him  to  play.  The  first  or  second  game 
was  so  nearly  lost  by  Baxter,  that  his  opponent 
betted  a  hundred  to  one  against  him,  laying  down 
ten  shillings  to  his  sixpence.  He  told  him  there 
was  no  possibility  of  his  winning,  but  by  getting 
one  cast  of  the  dice  very  often.  No  sooner  was 
the  money  down,  than  Baxter  had  every  cast 
which  he  wished  ;  so  that  before  a  person  could 
go  three  or  four  times  round  the  room,  the  game 
was  won.  This  so  astonished  him  that  he  believed 
the  devil  had  the  command  of  the  dice,  and  did  it 
to  entice  him  to  play ;  in  consequence  of  which 
he  returned  the  ten  shillings,  and  resolved  never 
to  play  more.  AVhatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
fact,  or  of  Baxter's  reasoning  on  it,  the  result  to 
him  was  important  and  beneficial. 

On  returning  from  Ludlow  castle  to  his  father's 


I 


228 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


house,  lie  found  his  old  schoolmaster,  Owen,  dying 
of  a  consumption.  At  the  request  of  Lord  New- 
port, he  took  charge  of  the  school  till  it  should 
appear  whether  the  master  would  die  or  recover. 
In  about  a  quarter  of  a  year,  his  death  relieved 
Baxter  from  this  office,  and  as  he  had  determined 
to  enter  the  ministry,  he  placed  himself  under  Mr. 
Francis  Garbet,  then  minister  of  Wroxeter,  for 
further  instruction  in  theology.  With  him  he 
read  logic  about  a  month,  but  was  seriously  and 
long  interrupted,  by  symptoms  of  that  complaint 
which  attended  him  to  his  grave.  He  was  at- 
tacked by  a  violent  cough,  with  spitting  of  blood, 
and  other  indications  of  consumption.  The  broken 
state  of  his  health,  the  irregularity  of  his  teacher, 
and  his  want  of  an  university  education,  materially 
injured  his  learning  and  occasioned  lasting  regrets. 
He  never  acquired  any  great  knowledge  of  the 
learned  languages.  Of  Hebrew  he  scarcely 
knew  anything ;  his  acquaintance  with  Greek  was 
not  profound ;  and  even  in  Latin,  as  his  works 
show,  he  must  be  regarded  by  a  scholar  as  little 
better  than  a  barbarian.  Of  mathematics  he 
knew  nothing,  and  never  had  a  taste  for  them. 
Of  logic  and  metaphysics  he  was  a  devoted 
admirer,  and  to  them  he  dedicated  his  labor  and 
delight.  Definitions  and  distinctions  were  in  a 
manner  his  occupation ;  the  quod  sit,  the  quid 
sit,  and  quotuplex  —  modes,  consequences,  and 
adjuncts,  were  his  vocabulary.  He  never  thought 
he  understood  anything  till  he  could  anatomize  it, 
and  see  the  parts  distinctly ;  and  certainly  very 
few  have  handled  the  knife  more  dexterously,  or 
to  so  great  an  extent.  His  love  of  the  niceties  of 
metaphysical  disquisition  plunged  him  very  early 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


into  the  study  of  controversial  divinity.  The 
schoolmen  were  the  objects  of  his  admiration. 
Aquinas,  Scotus,  Durandus,  Ockham,  and  their 
disciples,  were  the  teachers  from  whom  he  acquir- 
ed no  small  portion  of  that  acuteness  for  which 
he  became  so  distinguished  as  a  disputer,  and  of 
that  logomachy  by  which  most  of  his  writings  are 
deformed. 

"  Early  education,"  says  Mr.  Orme,  "  exerts  a 
prodigious  power  over  the  future  pursuits  and 
habits  of  the  individual.  Its  imperfections  or 
peculiarities  will  generally  appear,  if  he  attempt 
to  make  any  figure  in  the  literary  or  scientific 
world.  The  advantages  of  a  university  or  aca- 
demical education  will  never  be  despised,  except 
by  him  who  never  enjoyed  them,  or  who  affects 
to  be  superior  to  their  necessity.  It  cannot  be 
denied,  however,  that  some  of  our  eminent  men, 
in  all  departments  and  professions,  never  enjoyed 
these  early  advantages." 

Among  these  was  Richard  Baxter.  In  answer 
to  a  letter  of  Anthony  Wood,  inquiring  whether 
he  was  an  Oxonian,  he  replied  with  dignified 
simplicity :  "  As  to  myself,  my  faults  are  no  dis- 
grace to  any  university,  for  I  was  of  none ;  I 
have  little  but  what  I  had  out  of  books,  and  in- 
considerable helps  of  country  tutors.  Weakness 
and  pain  helped  me  to  study  how  to  die  :  that  set 
me  on  studying  how  to  live  ;  and  that  on  studying 
the  doctrine  from  which  I  must  fetch  my  motives 
and  comforts.  Beginning  with  necessities,  I  pro- 
ceeded by  degrees,  and  now  am  going  to  see  that 
for  which  I  have  lived  and  studied." 

The  defects  of  early  education  Baxter  made  up 
by  greater  ardor  of  application  and  energy  of 
20 


230 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


purpose.  He  never  attained  the  elegant  refine- 
ments of  classical  literature,  but  in  all  the  sub- 
stantial attainments  of  sound  learning  he  excelled 
most  of  his  contemporaries.  The  regrets  which 
he  felt,  at  an  early  period,  that  his  scholarship 
was  not  more  eminent,  he  thus  expresses : 

"  Thy  methods  cross  my  ways  ;  my  young  desire 
To  academic  glory  did  aspire. 
Fain  I'd  have  sat  in  such  a  nurse's  lap, 
Where  I  might  long  have  had  a  sluggard's  nap  : 
Or  have  been  dandled  on  her  reverend  knees, 
And  known  by  honored  titles  and  degrees  ; 
And  there  have  spent  the  flower  of  my  days 
In  soaring  in  the  air  of  human  praise. 
Yea,  and  I  thought  it  needful  to  thy  ends, 
To  make  the  prejudiced  world  my  friends  ; 
That  so  my  praise  might  go  before  thy  grace, 
Preparing  men  thy  messages  to  embrace  ; 
Also  my  work  and  office  to  adorn, 
And  to  avoid  profane  contempt  and  scorn. 
But  these  were  not  thy  thoughts  ;  thou  didst  foresee 
That  such  a  course  would  not  be  best  for  me, 
Thou  mad'est  me  know  that  man's  contempt  and  scorn, 
Is  such  a  cross  as  must  be  daily  borne." 

The  principal  scene  of  Baxter's  pastoral  labors 
was  Kidderminister.  Here  he  resided  about  four- 
teen years,  and  his  labors  were  attended  with 
remarkable  success.  "  It  was  a  great  advantage 
to  me,"  says  Baxter,  "  that  my  neighbors  were  of 
such  a  trade  as  allowed  them  time  to  read  or  talk 
of  holy  things.  For  the  town  liveth  upon  the 
weaving  of  Kidderminster  stuffs  ;  and  they  stand 
in  their  looms,  the  men  can  set  a  book  before 
them,  or  edify  one  another ;  whereas  ploughmen* 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


231 


and  many  others  are  so  wearied,  or  continually 
employed,  either  in  the  labors  or  the  cares  of 
their  callings,  that  it  is  a  great  impediment  to  their 
salvation.  Freeholders  and  tradesmen  are  the 
strength  of  religion  and  civility  in  the  land ;  and 
gentlemen  and  beggars,  and  servile  tenants,  are 
the  strength  of  iniquity.  Though  among  these 
sorts,  there  are  some  also  that  are  good  and  just, 
as  among  the  other  there  are  many  bad.  And 
their  constant  converse  and  traffic  with  London, 
doth  much  promote  civility  and  piety  among 
tradesmen. 

"Another  furtherance  of  my  work,  was  the 
books  which  I  wrote  and  gave  away  among  them. 
Of  some  small  books  I  gave  each  family  one, 
which  came  to  about  eight  hundred ;  and  of  the 
larger,  I  gave  fewer  ;  and  every  family  that  was 
poor,  and  had  not  a  Bible,  I  gave,  a  Bible  to.  I 
had  found  myself  the  benefit  of  reading  to  be  so 
great,  that  I  could  not  but  think  it  would  be  profit- 
able to  others. 

"  God  made  use  of  my  practice  of  physic 
among  them  also  as  a  very  great  advantage  to  my 
ministry ;  for  they  that  cared  not  for  their  souls 
did  love  their  lives,  and  care  for  their  bodies ;  and 
by  this,  they  were  made  almost  as  observant,  as  a 
tenant  is  of  his  landlord.  Sometimes  I  could  see 
before  me  in  the  church,  a  very  considerable  part 
of  the  congregation,  whose  lives  God  had  made 
me  a  means  to  save,  or  to  recover  their  health  ; 
and  doing  it  for  nothing,  so  obliged  them  that 
they  would  readily  hear  me.  Another  help  to 
my  success,  was  the  small  relief  which  my  low 
estate  enabled  me  to  afford  the  poor ;  though  the 
place  was  reckoned  at  near  two  hundred  pounds 


232 


KICHA.RD  BAXTER. 


per  annum,  there  came  but  ninety  pounds,  and 
sometimes  but  eighty  pounds  to  me.  Beside 
which,  some  years  I  had  sixty,  or  eighty  pounds 
a  year  of  the  booksellers  for  my  books ;  which 
little  dispersed  among  them,  much  reconciled  them 
to  the  doctrine  that  I  taught.  I  took  the  aptest 
of  their  children  from  the  school,  and  sent  divers 
of  them  to  the  universities ;  where  for  eight 
pounds  a  year,  or  ten,  at  most,  by  the  help  of  my 
friends,  I  maintained  them.  Some  of  them  are 
honest,  able  ministers,  now  cast  out  with  their 
brethren ;  but,  two  or  three  having  no  other  way 
to  live,  turned  great  conformists,  and  are  preachers 
now.  In  giving  the  little  I  had,  I  did  not  enquire 
whether  they  were  good  or  bad,  if  they  asked  re- 
lief ;  for  the  bad  had  souls  and  bodies  that  needed 
charity  most.  And  this  truth  I  will  speak  to  the 
encouragement  of  the  charitable,  that  what  little 
money  I  have  now  by  me,  I  got  it  almost  all, 
I  scarce  know  how,  at  that  time  when  I  gave 
most,  and  since  I  have  had  less  opportunity  of 
giving,  I  have  had  less  increase. 

"  My  public  preaching  met  with  an  attentive, 
diligent  auditory.  Having  broke  over  the  brunt 
of  the  opposition  of  the  rabble  before  the  wars,  I 
found  them  afterwards  tractable  and  unprejudiced. 
Before  I  entered  into  the  ministry,  God  blessed 
my  private  conference  to  the  conversion  of  some, 
who  remain  firm  and  eminent  in  holiness  to  this 
day ;  but  then,  and  in  the  beginning  of  my  min- 
istry, I  was  wont  to  number  them  as  jewels ;  but 
since  then  I  could  not  keep  any  number  of  them. 
The  congregation  was  usually  full,  so  that  we  were 
fain  to  build  five  galleries  after  my  coming 
thither ;  the  church  itself  being  very  capaciouc, 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


233 


and  the  most  commodious  and  convenient  that 
ever  I  was  in.  Our  private  meetings,  also,  were 
full.  On  the  Lord's  days  there  was  no  disorder 
to  be  seen  in  the  streets ;  but  you  might  hear  a 
hundred  families  singing  psalms  and  repeating 
sermons  as  you  passed  through  them.  In  a  word, 
when  I  came  thither  first,  there  was  about  one 
family  in  a  street  that  worshipped  God  and  called 
on  his  name,  and  when  I  came  away,  there  were 
some  streets  where  there  was  not  one  poor  family 
in  the  side  that  did  not  so ;  and  that  did  not,  by 
professing  serious  godliness,  give  us  hopes  of 
their  sincerity.  And  in  those  families  which  were 
the  worst,  being  inns  and  ale-houses,  usually  some 
persons  in  each  house  did  seem  to  be  religious. 
Though  our  administration  of  the  Lord's  supper 
was  so  ordered  as  displeased  many,  and  the  far 
greater  part  kept  away,  we  had  six  hundred  that 
were  communicants ;  of  whom  there  were  not 
twelve  that  I  had  not  good  hopes  of  as  to  their 
sincerity." 

In  accounting  for  these  signal  and  blessed  effects 
of  his  ministry,  his  biographer  remarks  with  great 
justice,  that  "  Baxter  never  spoke  like  a  man 
who  was  indifferent  whether  his  audience  felt  what 
he  said,  or  considered  him  in  earnest  on  the  sub- 
ject. His  eye,  his  action,  his  every  word,  were  ex- 
pressive of  deep  and  impassioned  earnestness,  that 
his  hearers  might  be  saved.  His  was  eloquence 
of  the  highest  order ;  not  the  eloquence  of  nicely 
selected  words,  —  or  the  felicitous  combination  of 
terms  and  phrases,  —  or  the  music  of  exquisitely 
balanced  periods,  (though  these  properties  are  fre- 
quently to  be  found  in  Baxter's  discourses,)  but 
the  eloquence  of  the  most  important  truths,  vividly 
20* 

1 


234 


RICHARD  BAXTER. 


apprehended,  and  energetically  delivered.  It  was 
the  eloquence  of  a  soul  burning  with  ardent  devo- 
tion to  God,  and  inspired  with  the  deepest  com- 
passion for  men,  on  whom  the  powers  of  the 
worlds  of  darkness  and  light,  exercised  their 
mighty  influence ;  and  spoke  through  his  utteran- 
ces, all  that  was  tremendous  in  warning,  and  all 
that  was  delightful  in  invitation  and  love.  The 
gaining  of  souls  to  Christ  was  the  only  object  for 
which  he  lived.  Hence,  amidst  the  seeming 
variety  of  his  pursuits  and  engagements,  there 
was  a  perfect  harmony  of  design.  His  ruling  and 
controlling  principle  was  the  love  of  his  Master, 
producing  the  desire  of  a  full  and  faithful  dis- 
charge of  his  duty,  as  his  approved  minister. 
This  was  the  centre  around  which  every  thing 
moved,  and  by  which  every  thing  in  his  circum- 
stances and  character  was  attracted  or  repelled. 
This  gave  unity  to  all  his  plans,  and  constituted 
the  moral  force  of  all  his  actions. 

Baxter  died  December  8,  1691.  He  left  the 
world  in  joyful  assurance  of  entering  into  the 
saint's  everlasting  rest.  During  his  sickness,  when 
the  question  was  asked,  How  he  did?  his  reply 
was,  Almost  well. 

In  reviewing  the  life  of  this  extraordinary  man, 
we  see  what  powerful  and  numerous  difficulties  a 
resolute  mind  can  overcome.  Baxter,  during  his 
whole  life,  might  be  almost  said  to  die  daily. 
Hardly  ever  was  such  a  mind  connected  with  so 
frail  an  earthly  lodging-place.  He  was  the  sport 
of  medical  treatment  and  experiment.  At  about 
fourteen  years  of  age  he  was  seized  with  the  small- 
pox, and  soon  after,  by  improper  exposure  to  the 
cold,  he  was  affected  by  violent  catarrh  and  cough. 


RICHARD  BAXTER.  235 

This  continued  for  about  two  years,  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  spitting  of  blood,  and  other  phthisical 
symptoms.  One  physician  prescribed  one  mode 
of  cure,  and  another  a  different  one ;  till,  from  first 
to  last,  he  had  the  advice  of  no  less  than  thirty-six 
professors  of  the  healing  art.  He  was  diseased 
literally  from  head  to  feet ;  his  stomach  acidulous, 
violent  rheumatic  headaches,  prodigious  bleeding 
at  the  nose,  his  blood  so  thin  and  acrid  that  it 
oozed  out  from  the  points  of  his  fingers,  and  often 
kept  them  raw  and  bloody.  His  physicans  called 
it  hypochondria.  He  himself  considered  it  to 
be  premature  old  age ;  so  that  at  twenty  he  had 
the  symptoms,  in  addition  to  disease,  of  four- 
score. He  was  certainly  one  of  the  most  diseased 
and  afflicted  men  that  ever  reached  the  ordinary 
limits  of  human  life.  How,  under  such  circum- 
stances, he  was  capable  of  making  the  exertions 
winch  he  almost  incessantly  made,  appears  not  a 
little  mysterious. 

Baxter  lived  also  in  one  of  the  most  stormy 
periods  of  English  history.  Men  were  bound, 
and  in  "deaths  oft,"  for  conscience  sake.  For 
preaching  the  truth,  as  they  honestly  believed  it 
be,  no  less  than  two  thousand  ministers  were,  on 
one  occasion,  ejected  from  their  pulpits.  Civil 
wars  raged  with  fearful  violence,  and  many  were 
the  men  whose  hands  were  imbrued  in  fraternal 
blood.  Baxter  was  in  all  these  tumultuous  scenes; 
now  in  the  army  of  the  Protector,  now  showing 
his  dexterity  in  logical  warfare  before  councils 
and  synods,  now  in  prison,  and  now  in  his  pulpit 
at  Kidderminster.  In  short,  he  lived  at  the  time 
of  Selden,  and  Milton,  and  Hampden,  and  Pym, 
— at  the  time  of  .the  breaking  up  of  the  dark  ages, 


23C  RICHARD  BAXTER. 


after  old  systems  were  overthrown,  and  when  all 
was  in  confusion  and  uncertainty. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  his  labors  were  pro- 
digious. The  works  of  bishop  Hall  amount  to  ten 
volumes,  octavo,  Lightfoot's  extend  to  thirteen, 
Jeremy  Taylor's  to  fifteen,  Dr.  Goodwin's  to  twen- 
ty, Dr.  Owen's  to  twenty-eight;  while  Richard 
Baxter's  works,  if  printed  in  a  uniform  edition, 
could  not  be  comprised  in  less  than  sixty  volumes, 
making  at  least  thirty-five  thousand  closely  printed 
octavo  pages.  At  the  same  time,  his  labors  as  a 
minister,  and  his  engagements  in  the  public  busi- 
ness of  his  times,  formed  his  chief  employment 
for  many  years,  so  that  he  speaks  of  writing  but 
as  a  kind  of  recreation  from  more  severe  duties. 
The  subjects  on  which  he  wrote  embrace  the 
whole  range  of  theology ;  in  all  the  parts  of  which 
he  seems  to  have  been  nearly  equally  at  home. 
Doctrinal,  practical,  casuistical  and  polemical,  all 
occupied  his  thoughts  and  engaged  his  pen. 

"  His  inquiries  ranged,  and  his  writings  ex- 
tended from  the  profoundest  and  most  abstruse 
speculation  on  the  divine  decrees,  the  constitution 
of  man,  and  the  origin  of  evil,  to  the  simplest 
truths  adapted  to  the  infant  mind.  Baxter  ap- 
pears to  have  read  every  thing  relating  to  his 
own  profession,  and  to  have  remembered  all 
which  he  read.  The  fathers  and  schoolmen,  the 
doctors  and  reformers  of  all  ages  and  countries, 
seem  to  have  been  as  familiar  to  him  as  his  native 
tongue.  He  rarely  makes  a  parade  of  his  knowl- 
edge, but  he  never  fails  to  convince  you  that  he 
was  well  acquainted  with  most  which  had  been 
written  on  the  subjects  which  he  discusses." 


ARTHUR  YOUNG. 


This  celebrated  agriculturist  was  a  younger 
son  of  the  Rev.  Arthur  Young,  D.  D.,  prebendary 
of  Canterbury,  and  was  born  on  the  seventeenth  of 
March,  1741,  at  Bradfield  Hall,  Suffolk,  England. 
Dr.  Young,  not  being  able  to  provide  very  liber- 
ally for  his  younger  children,  designed  Arthur  for 
trade,  and  accordingly  apprenticed  him  to  a  wine- 
merchant  at  Lynn,  in  Norfolk ;  but  the  lad  having 
evinced  an  early  attachment  to  agricultural  pur- 
suits, on  his  father's  death,  in  1761,  returned  home, 
and  managed  the  farm  at  Bradfield,  for  the  benefit 
of  his  widowed  mother  and  her  family.  He  left 
his  maternal  roof  in  1767,  having  during  his  five 
years'  farming  kept  a  register  of  his  experiments, 
which  formed  the  basis  of  his  "  Course  of  Experi- 
mental Agriculture,"  published  anonymously  in 
1770,  and  which  was  well  received  by  practical 
farmers,  though  it  was  rather  too  highly  colored. 

On  quitting  home,  he  hired  a  farm  in  Essex,  but 
after  six  months'  trial  he  was  obliged  to  relinquish 
it  for  want  of  funds.  He  at  last  fixed  himself  near 
North  Minns,  in  Hertfordshire,  where  he  continu- 
ed for  about  nine  years,  repeating  his  experiments 
on  lands  not  very  favorable  to  them,  and,  like 
many  other  ingenious  speculatists,  losing  his 
money  nearly  as  often  as  he  made  the  attempt. 
So  warmly,  however,  was  he  attached  to  his  fa- 
vorite pursuits,  that  he  determined  to  promote 
and  recommend  them  by  his  pen,  and  before  he 


238 


ARTHUR  YOUNG. 


had  completed  his  thirtieth  year  published  several 
works  for  the  improvement  of  agriculture,  particu- 
larly his  "  Farmer's  Letters,"  "  Rural  Economy," 
and  "  Tours  through  the  Southern,  Northern  and 
Eastern  parts  of  England,"  all  of  them  replete 
with  useful  information.  During  his  visit  to  the 
north  of  England,  an  opportunity  was  afforded 
him  of  rendering  essential  service  to  a  most  extra- 
ordinary self-taught  agriculturist  in  humble  life,  a 
miner,  at  Swinton,  named  James  Crofts,  who,  by 
the  almost  incredible  devotion  of  twenty  hours  a 
day  to  hard  labor,  had,  with  his  own  hands,  re- 
claimed ten  acres  of  moor-land,  on  which  he  kept 
three  milch  cows,  an  heifer,  and  a  galloway.  To 
encourage  such  a  rare  instance  of  industry  and 
application  in  the  lower  orders,  Mr.  Young  set  on 
foot  a  subscription  for  the  benefit  of  this  humble 
but  most  valuable  member  of  society,  the  produce 
of  which  freed  him  from  his  subterranean  em- 
ployment, and  enabled  him  to  direct  his  attention 
exclusively  to  the  improvement  of  waste  lands,  an 
occupation  for  which  he  had,  under  every  possible 
disadvantage,  evinced  an  extraordinary  adaptation 
of  untutored  genius. 

The  tour  of  Mr.  Young  occupied  six  months ; 
the  information  and  incidents  of  which  were  col- 
lected and  published  in  four  octavo  volumes.  He 
soon  after  printed  an  "  Essay  on  Swine,"  to  which 
the  gold  medal  of  the  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Arts  was  awarded.  In  1770,  he  gave  to 
the  world  a  very  valuable  treatise,  called  "  The 
Farmer's  Guide  in  hiring  and  stocking  farms," 
and  so  indefatigably  did  he  pursue  his  favorite 
object,  that  in  the  summer  of  1770  he  made  a  tour 
through  the  eastern  counties  of  England,  in  con- 


ARTHUR  YOUNG. 


239 


tinuance  of  his  plan,  imperfectly  as  he  had  then 
formed  it,  of  an  agricultural  survey  of  England. 
The  observations  made  during  this  journey  were 
published  in  May,  1771,  and  it  is  no  small  proof 
of  their  author's  industry,  that  they  were  printed 
as  soon  as  in  the  course  of  the  year  1770  (half 
of  which,  at  least,  was  spent  in  travelling)  and 
of  the  spring  of  1771.  In  this  short  period  he 
must  have  found  time  to  print  and  publish  his 
"  Farmer's  Guide,"  in  two  volumes,  octavo,  his 
"Eastern  Tour,"  in  four,  "Rural  Economy,"  in 
one,  a  second  volume  of  the  "  Farmer's  Letters," 
and  a  "  Course  of  Experimental  Agriculture," 
in  two  volumes,  quarto,  besides  superintending 
through  the  press  the  second  edition  of  his 
"  Northern  Tour,"  in  four  volumes,  octavo.  With 
so  much  to  do  in  so  short  a  space  of  time,  what 
wonder  that  Mr.  Young  should  not  have  perform- 
ed everything  which  he  undertook  equally  well  ? 
He  wrote  his  books  too  fast,  and  was  too  prone  to 
substitute  speculations  for  facts. 

After  the  death  of  his  mother,  he  entered  on 
the  possession  of  the  family  estate,  which  he  con- 
tinued to  cultivate  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  In  addition  to  the  works  which  have  been 
named,  he  wrote  a  very  sensible  pamphlet  on  the 
expediency  of  a  free  exportation  of  corn,  propo- 
sals to  the  Legislature  for  numbering  the  people, 
observations  on  the  present  state  of  the  waste 
lands  of  the  kingdom,  an  essay  on  the  culture  of 
cole-seed  for  feeding  sheep  and  cattle,  for  which 
the  gold  medal  of  the  Society  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  Arts  was,  for  the  second  time,  awarded 
him,  and  a  political  arithmetic.  His  reputation 
was  soon  widely  spread  abroad.    By  order  of  the 


240 


ARTIICR  YOUNG. 


empress  Catharine,  his  agricultural  tours  were 
translated  into  the  Russian  language.  At  the 
same  time  she  sent  several  young  Russians  to 
the  author  to  learn  the  system  of  English  ag- 
riculture under  his  immediate  superintendence. 
Prince  Potemkin  speedily  sent  two  others,  and 
his  example  was  soon  followed  by  the  marquis 
de  Lafayette. 

Mr.  Young's  tour  through  Ireland,  published  in 
1780,  and  which  contains  a  mass  of  valuable  facts 
and  observations,  is  characterized  by  Maria  Edge- 
worth  "  as  the  most  faithful  portrait  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Ireland,  to  whom  it  rendered  essential 
service,  by  giving  to  other  nations,  and  more 
especially  to  the  English,  a  more  correct  notion 
than  they  had  hitherto  entertained  of  their  char- 
acter, customs  and  manners." 

In  1784,  this  indefatigable  writer  commenced 
his  "  Annals  of  Agriculture,"  a  periodical  publi- 
cation, continued  monthly,  until  the  close  of  his 
life,  when  it  amounted  to  forty-five  octavo  vol- 
umes, forming  a  rich  collection  of  facts,  essays 
and  communications  on  every  question  of  agri- 
culture and  political  economy.  For  a  long  time, 
however,  this  work  was  more  laborious  than  suc- 
cessful, doing  little  if  anything  beyond  paying  its 
expenses,  and  averaging,  when  the  fifteenth  vol- 
ume was  completed,  a  sale  of  only  three  hundred 
and  fifty  copies  of  each  number.  This  want  of 
patronage,  the  disadvantage  of  a  provincial  press, 
misunderstandings  with  one  publisher,  the  failure 
of  another,  £350  in  the  editor's  debt,  and  a  variety 
of  untoward  accidents,  not  unfrequently  falling 
to  the  lot  of  authors  and  editors,  considerably 
damped  Mr.  Young's  expectations  from  a  work  to 


ARTHUR  YOUNG. 


241 


which  he  had  looked  for  posthumous  reputation. 
But  that  reputation  was  not  so  long  delayed ;  and 
with  it  the  sale  of  his  work  and  consequently  its 
profits  gradually  increased.  For  the  information 
contained  in  this  truly  valuable  miscellany,  he 
had  the  honor  of  receiving  the  approbation  and 
personal  thanks  of  George  III.  when  he  one  day 
met  Mr.  Young  on  the  terrace  at  Windsor.  So 
deep  an  interest  did  the  venerable  monarch  take 
in  the  success  of  a  work,  of  whose  merit  no  one 
was  more  competent  to  judge,  that  he  shortly  after 
sent  its  editor  some  communications  in  the  form 
of  letters,  which  were  inserted  in  the  annals  under 
the  signature  of  Ralph  Robinson. 

In  1787,  1788,  and  1789,  Mr.  Young  performed 
three  tours  in  France,  and  published  the  result  of 
his  observations  in  two  quarto  volumes,  which 
were  favorably  received.  As  a  proof  of  his  en- 
ergy, it  is  stated  that  he  performed  his  second 
journey  on  the  back  of  a  horse  wall-eyed  and  well 
nigh  blind,  without  surtout  or  saddlebags,  and  met, 
as  might  be  expected  from  such  an  equipment  for 
a  three  months'  trip,  with  several  adventures  not 
unworthy  the  knight-errantry  of  Hudibras  or  Don 
Quixote  to  perform,  or  the  genius  of  Cervantes  or 
Butler  to  celebrate. 

On  the  formation  of  the  Agricultural  Board, 
Mr.  Young  became  its  secretary,  and  performed 
the  duties  of  his  office  till  his  death  with  great 
zeal  and  fidelity.  He  continued  from  time  to 
time  to  survey  several  of  the  counties  of  England, 
of  which  surveys  he  published  detailed  reports. 
To  his  very  last  days  his  attachment  to  his  early 
pursuits  continued ;  and  at  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  preparing  for  the  press  the  result  of  his 
21 


242 


ARTHUR  YOUNG. 


agricultural  experiments  and  observations  during 
a  period  of  fifty  years. 

Mr,  Young  was  a  man  of  strong  understanding, 
of  a  vigorous  mind,  and  of  warm  feelings ;  a  most 
diligent  student,  yet  disposed  to  think  for  himself. 
He  was  extremely  temperate  in  his  habits,  ardent 
and  indefatigable  in  his  pursuits,  and  diligent  and 
laborious  in  a  degree  seldom  equalled.  Through 
the  whole  course  of  his  life  he  was  a  very  early 
riser,  and  continued  this  practice  even  after  blind- 
ness made  him  dependent  on  others  for  the  prose- 
cution of  his  studies.  His  firmness  was  great; 
but  to  a  man  of  sanguine  disposition,  the  continual 
obstruction  to  his  pursuits  produced  by  a  want  of 
sight,  (a  calamity  which  afflicted  him  after  1811 
till  his  death,)  could  scarcely  have  been  borne 
with  patience,  had  it  not  been  for  the  influences 
of  religion,  whose  benign  operation  was  never 
more  triumphantly  displayed. 

A  most  important  change  in  his  principles  and 
character  took  place  in  the  year  1797,  when  the 
death  of  his  youngest  daughter,  to  whom  he  had 
been  most  tenderly  attached,  first  led  him  to  apply 
to  that  only  true  source  of  consolation  over  which 
the  world  has  no  power.  During  the  former 
fifty-six  years  of  his  life,  while  most  subjects  of 
importance  had,  at  one  time  or  other  engaged  his 
attention,  the  most  important  of  all,  religion,  had 
scarcely  occupied  a  thought.  He  was  not  indeed 
an  avowed  skeptic,  but  his  mind  was  so  unin- 
structed  and  his  heart  so  unconcerned  in  all  that 
respected  religion,  that,  as  he  used  often  after- 
wards to  declare  and  deeply  to  lament,  he  was 
little  better  than  a  heathen.  The  diligence  with 
which  he  thenceforth  discharged  his  official  duties, 


■ 


ARTHUR  YOUNG. 


243 


prosecuted  his  studies,  and  continued  his  favorite 
pursuits,  was  however  in  no  degree  abated,  but 
the  motive  was  wholly  changed.  He  was  now 
actuated  by  a  desire  to  please  God,  and  by  a  wish 
in  his  fear  to  do  good  to  men.  A  very  large  pro- 
portion of  his  property  was  devoted  to  the  relief  of 
the  distressed ;  the  poor  peasantry  around  his  estate 
ever  looked  up  to  him  as  a  father  and  a  friend. 
To  enable  him  to  give  more  to  the  poor,  he  lived 
with  simplicity  and  moderation,  without  ostenta- 
tion, though  with  much  hospitality :  no  man  having 
a  warmer  heart  towards  his  friends  or  giving  them 
a  kindlier  welcome  at  his  cheerful  board.  His 
early  opposition  to  the  slave-trade  evinced  that 
he  was  a  friend  to  the  whole  brotherhood  of  man. 
He  died  on  the  twentieth  of  February,  1820. 
The  disease  which  terminated  his  mortal  exis- 
tence was  an  extremely  painful  one ;  but,  in  the 
most  excruciating  bodily  agony,  his  patience  and 
resignation  were  exemplarily  manifested. 


CHARLES  G.  HAINES. 


Charles  G.  Haines  was  born  at  Canterbury, 
in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  about  the  year 
1793.  His  father  was  a  respectable  farmer,  in 
humble  circumstances,  but  endowed  with  a  vigor- 
ous mind.  His  energetic  habits  of  thought 
doubtless  exerted  great  influence  on  the  mind  of 
his  son,  by  calling  its  powers  into  activity  at  an 
early  age,  and  thus,  in  some  measure,  compensated 
for  the  absence  of  those  opportunities  of  education, 
which  the  limited  means  of  the  family  put  beyond 
their  reach.  Charles  passed  the  years  of  his  boy- 
hood in  his  father's  house,  laboring  on  the  farm 
in  the  summer,  and  attending  the  village  school 
in  the  winter.  It  is  probable  that  this  mode  of 
life  did  not  please  him,  and  that  a  restless  spirit 
induced  him  to  seek  some  other  employment 
of  a  less  humble  character.  About  the  age 
of  fourteen  years,  he  obtained  the  situation  of  a 
clerk  in  the  office  of  Col.  Philip  Carrigain,  at 
that  time  secretary  of  the  State  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. While  a  mere  copyist  in  the  office  of 
this  gentleman,  his  desire  to  be  distinguished  in 
every  occupation  in  which  he  was  engaged,  show- 
ed itself  in  the  acquisition  of  a  beautiful  hand- 
writing —  an  attainment  upon  which  no  intelligent 
man  will  place  a  low  estimate.  On  the  appoint- 
ment of  Col.  Carrigain  to  prepare  a  map  of  the 
State,  and  his  consequent  resignation  of  his  office 
of  secretary,  young  Haines,  partly  by  his  own 


CHARLES  G.  HAINES.  245 

exertions,  and  partly  by  the  assistance  of  his 
friends,  prepared  himself  for  college,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  institution  in  Middlebury,  Ver- 
mont, in  1812.  He  passed  through  the  usual 
course  with  credit,  and  in  1816,  received  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  In  consequence  of 
unremitted  application,  his  health  had  become 
feeble,  and  he  was  induced  to  undertake  a  journey 
on  horseback.  On  this  occasion,  he  first  visited 
the  city  of  New  York.  He  continued  his  journey 
as  far  as  Pittsburgh,  in  Pennsylvania.  He  re- 
turned to  Vermont,  in  much  better  health,  and 
commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  the 
Hon.  Horatio  Seymour,  of  Middlebury.  He  also 
engaged  in  the  task  of  assisting  in  the  editorship 
of  one.  of  the  principal  political  journals  of  the 
State,  probably  from  want  of  other  means  of 
subsistence.  In  1818,  Mr.  Haines  removed  to 
the  city  of  New  York,  and  entered  the  law  office 
of  Pierre  C.  Van  Wyck,  Esq.  He  soon  took 
an  active  part  in  the  local  politics  of  the  State, 
and  was  appointed  private  secretary  to  Governor 
Clinton.  Yet  so  great  was  his  address,  or  so 
happy  his  disposition,  that  he  was  beloved  by  all 
parties  for  his  generous  feelings  and  polite  deport- 
ment. During  the  first  year  of  his  residence  in 
New  York,  Mr.  Haines  produced  a  pamphlet,  in 
which  he  took  an  elaborate  review  of  the  proba- 
ble expense  and  advantages  of  the  great  western 
canal.  Soon  after  he  produced  a  larger  work  on 
the  same  subject,  in  which  he  displays  great 
research  and  industry.  After  this  he  secluded 
himself  almost  entirely  from  society,  and  applied 
himself  closely  to  professional  studies.  Few  men 
labor  more  assiduously  than  Mr.  Haines  did  for 
21* 


246 


CHARLES  G.  HAINES. 


three  years  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  and 
until  attacked  by  the  disease  which  proved  fatal 
to  him.  Besides  attending  to  his  business  as  a 
lawyer,  he  uniformly  devoted  three  hours  in  a  day 
to  reading  law,  and  spent  his  nights,  till  a  very 
late  hour,  in  the  study  of  history  and  political 
science.  It  was  his  habit  to  make  copious  abstracts 
of  the  books  which  he  read,  to  which  he  added 
numerous  notes  of  his  own.  He  was  not  an 
exact,  practical  lawyer.  While  he  was  familiar 
writh  the  general  doctrines  of  the  law,  he  devoted 
his  earnest  attention  to  questions  involving  the 
principles  of  our  federal  and  state  constitutions. 
It  was  therefore  in  the  courts  of  the  United 
States,  where  all  the  important  doctrines  regard- 
ing our  national  compact  are  agitated  and  deter- 
mined, that  Mr.  Haines  desired  to  appear.  His 
studies  had  a  constant  tendency  to  this  object. 
Among  his  manuscripts,  there  is  a  minute  analysis 
of  the  "  Federalist,"  besides  several  volumes 
filled  with  quotations,  and  occasionally  with  com- 
plete abstracts  of  works  on  kindred  subjects. 
The  first  question  in  which  he  was  concerned 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
was  one  involving  the  constitutionality  of  the  state 
bankrupt  laws.  On  its  decision  depended  the 
fortune  of  thousands  of  individuals,  and  the  title 
to  millions  of  property.  Mr.  Henry  Clay  and 
Mr.  David  B.  Ogden,  were  his  senior  counsel, 
and  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Wheaton  were  the 
opposing  counsel.  The  impression  made  by 
Haines  on  his  learned  auditors  was  favorable. 
The  argument  for  the  constitutionality  of  the 
State  bankrupt  laws  was  the  fruit  of  long  and 
laborious  preparation.    It  was  afterwards  printed, 


CHARLES  G.  HAINES. 


247 


and  does  great  credit  to  his  industry,  learning, 
and  good  sense.  His  legal  talents  were  never 
fully  tested.  His  early  education  had  been  hur- 
ried and  deficient.  His  powers  of  thought  had 
never  been  tasked  by  rigorous  trains  of  mathe- 
matical and  metaphysical  reasoning.  His  mind 
had  never  been  disciplined  to  that  severity  and 
exactness  of  thought,  which  go  to  form  a  truly 
able  lawyer.  Yet  his  mental  processes  were  just, 
rapid,  and  vigorous,  and  even  when  competing 
with  men  of  the  highest  legal  attainments,  his 
previous  diligent  preparation,  made  him  always 
respectable.  Mr.  Haines  was  frequently  called 
upon  to  address  public  assemblies  upon  various 
topics  which  for  the  moment  interested  the  com- 
munity. He  freely  lent  his  aid  to  the  various 
institutions  of  charity  and  reform,  giving  to  them 
liberally  his  time,  his  money,  and  his  labor.  In 
general,  he  wrote  out  the  substance  of  his  intended 
speech  at  length.  As  the  views  which  he  took  of 
his  subject  were  large,  his  efforts  of  this  kind 
never  disappointed  public  expectation,  and  were 
frequently  honorable  to  his  talents,  as  well  as  to 
his  good  feelings.  Among  the  topics  of  this 
nature,  on  which  he  wrote  and  spoke  with  effect, 
were  "  Pauperism,"  and  the  "  Penitentiary  sys- 
tem." His  useful  exertions  for*  the  cause  of 
humanity  in  relation  to  these  subjects  will  long 
be  remembered  with  gratitude. 

In  the  political  struggles  of  the  State,  Mr. 
Haines  was  very  active.  In  1825,  Governor 
Clinton  nominated  him  adjutant  general  of  the 
militia  of  the  State,  an  office  which  he  did  not 
live  to  assume.  The  labors,  in  which  he  was 
engaged,  were  too  severe  for  his  physical  strength. 


248 


CHARLES  G.  HAINES. 


Intense  study  and  continued  sedentary  habit3  were 
gradually  making  fatal  inroads  upon  a  constitution 
originally  good,  and  which  had  been  sustained  thus 
far  by  a  life  of  the  strictest  temperance.  His 
friends  often  warned  him  against  the  effects  of  mid- 
night study  and  neglect  of  exercise,  but  he  used  to 
reply  that  he  did  not  require  any  relaxation. 
Their  fears  were  too  soon  realized.  He  lingered 
till  the  third  of  July,  1825,  when  he  expired  at 
the  age  of  thirty-two  years.  His  funeral  took 
place  on  the  sixth  of  July,  and  was  attended  by 
an  immense  concourse  of  citizens. 

"  His  devotion  to  politics,"  remarks  his  biogra- 
pher, "  was  almost  a  passion,  and  if  talent  may 
be  estimated  by  success,  he  was  well  adapted  for 
political  life.  Certain  it  is,  that  he  seized  with 
uncommon  tact  upon  those  circumstances  which 
industry  and  zeal  could  render  favorable  ;  and,  as 
he  conciliated  every  man  whom  he  approached, 
he  accomplished  as  much  by  his  personal  influ- 
ence, as  by  his  writings.  There  was,  besides,  in 
him  an  enthusiasm,  which  believed  nothing  impos- 
sible ;  and  to  such  an  one,  obstacles  are  toys,  and 
victory  a  pastime.  More  than  all,  and  united 
with  all,  he  possessed  an  indefatigable  systematic 
industry,  the  great  secret  of  all  acquisitions. 
Those  who  have  the  originality  to  conceive  great 
designs,  are  not  found,  in  general,  to  possess  the 
practical  talent  of  developing  their  utility,  and 
carrying  them  into  execution.  Mr.  Haines  had 
the  sagacity  to  seize  on  the  best  conceptions  of 
other  men,  the  diligence  to  gather  important  facts 
and  circumstances  in  their  support,  and  the 
activity  and  energy  to  turn  them  to  practical 
account" 


CHARLES  G.  HAINES. 


249 


Mr.  Haines  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  what 
the  unaided  efforts  of  one  man  may  accomplish. 
He  came  to  the  city  of  New  York,  a  poor  and 
friendless  stranger,  and  in  the  short  space  of 
seven  years,  he  surrounded  himself  with  numer- 
ous and  valuable  friends,  acquired  considerable 
reputation  as  a  scholar,  a  politician,  and  a  writer, 
and  rose  to  one  of  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift 
of  the  State  government.  His  social  and  private 
character  was  exemplary,  though  his  constitutional 
ardor  sometimes  triumphed  over  his  judgment. 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


Carsten  Niebtjrh  was  born  on  the  17th  of 
March,  1733,  in  Hadeln,  then  belonging  to  the 
province  of  Friesland,  Denmark,  but  since  united 
with  the  kingdom  of  Hanover,  Germany.  He 
lost  his  mother  before  he  was  six  weeks  old.  He 
grew  up  under  the  care  of  a  step-mother  in  his 
father's  house,  where  his  way  of  life  and  employ- 
ments, as  well  as  his  education,  were  those  com- 
mon to  the  peasant  boys  of  his  country.  It  was, 
probably  owing  to  his  own  eager  desire  for 
knowledge  that  his  father  was  induced,  only  with 
a  view  of  his  being  somewhat  better  instructed  than 
a  common  peasant,  to  send  him  to  the  grammar 
school  in  Otterndorf,  whence  he  afterwards  went  to 
that  at  Altenbruch.  But  the  removal  of  the  school- 
master of  the  place,  and  the  prejudices  of  the 
guardians,  (for  his  father  had  died  in  the  interval,) 
put  an  end  to  his  school-studies  before  he  had 
gone  far  enough  to  have  them  sufficiently  impres- 
sed on  his  memory,  to  be  of  any  service  to  him, 
when  he  afterwards  resumed  them.  The  division 
of  his  father's  property  between  the  surviving 
children  had  left  him,  instead  of  the  farm  which 
had  been  so  long  the  hereditary  possession  of  the 
family,  only  a  very  small  capital,  quite  inadequate 
to  the  purchase  of  any  land  for  himself ;  and 
necessity  would  have  led  him  to  acquire  knowl- 
edge, as  a  means  of  subsistence,  even  if  he  had 
been  of  a  character  to  endure  to  live  without 


OARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


251 


education,  and  without  employment.  He  was 
obliged,  however,  to  content  himself  with  such 
accomplishments  as  were  attainable  without  school- 
learning  ;  he,  therefore,  for  a  year,  pursued  music 
with  great  zeal,  and  learned  to  play  on  several 
instruments  with  a  view  to  earn  his  living  as  an 
organist.  As  this  employment,  likewise,  did  not 
meet  the  approbotion  of  his  guardians,  his  mater- 
nal uncle  took  him  home  to  his  own  house,  where 
he  passed  about  four  years,  during  which  his  life 
was  once  more  that  of  a  peasant.  The  older  he 
grew,  however,  the  less  could  he  endure  the  void 
and  dulness  of  this  way  of  life,  which  can  only  be 
relieved,  either,  as  in  old  times,  by  a  share  in  the 
general  deliberation  on  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
munity, and  by  cheerfulness  and  merriment,  or, 
as  is  the  case  with  the  English  farmer,  by  a 
participation  in  the  advantages  of  education  and 
literary  amusement.  He  felt  an  irresistible  im- 
pulse to  learn,  to  employ  himself,  and  to  render 
himself  generally  useful. 

The  providential  circumstances  which  deter- 
mine the  course  of  life  of  distinguished  men, 
deserve  to  be  remembered.  In  the  highest  degree 
providential  was  that  which  gave  to  Niebuhr  the 
direction  which  he  thenceforth  followed,  until  it 
led  him  to  become  one  of  the  most  eminent 
travellers  of  modern  times.  A  law  suit  had  arisen 
concerning  the  superficial  contents  of  a  farm, 
which  could  only  be  decided  by  measurement,  and 
as  there  was  no  land  surveyor  in  Hadeln,  the 
parties  were  obliged  to  send  for  one  to  another 
place.  Niebuhr  felt  for  the  honor  of  his  native 
district  with  all  the  warmth  of  old  times,  and  this 
occurrence  appeared  to  him  disgraceful  to  it.  He 


252 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


could  now  fulfil  a  duty  towards  his  country  by 
learning  the  neglected  art,  which  at  the  same 
time  furnished  him  with  an  occupation  and  an 
object  such  as  he  desired.  Learning  that  instruc- 
tion in  practical  geometry  was  to  be  had  in 
Bremen,  he  immediately,  on  arriving  at  age, 
repaired  to  that  city.  This  plan  was  frustrated ; 
the  teacher  upon  whom  he  depended  was  dead ; 
but  he  did  not  disdain  the  instruction  of  a  humble 
practitioner  of  the  art.  He,  however,  would  be 
obliged  to  lodge  and  board  in  his  house,  and  here 
the  bashful,  strictly  decorous,  and  self-distrusting 
young  peasant,  found  two  town-bred  young  ladies, 
sisters  of  his  intended  teacher,  whose  attentions 
appeared  to  him  so  singular  that  he  quickly  took 
his  departure.  He  now  turned  his  eyes  towards 
Hamburgh,  but  there  he  was  destined  again  to 
experience  disappointment,  and  to  have  his  per- 
severance put  to  the  test. 

He  had  passed  his  two  and  twentieth  year  when 
he  went  to  Hamburg  to  avail  himself  of  Suc- 
cow's  instructions  in  mathematics,  and,  without 
any  false  shame  on  account  of  his  age,  to  begin 
his  school-studies  anew,  his  income  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  maintain  him  even  with  that  rigid  economy 
which  was  natural  to  him.  He  determined,  how- 
ever, to  spend  just  so  much  of  his  small  capital 
as  would  enable  him  to  accomplish  his  end.  He 
arrived  at  Hamburgh  in  the  summer  of  the  year, 
1755.  But  just  at  this  time,  Succow  was  called 
to  Jena;  the  mathematical  chair  was  not  filled  till 
Biisch  was  appointed  to  it.  The  severest  applica- 
tion to  private  instruction  was,  therefore,  neces- 
sary to  make  the  lessons  at  the  gymnasium  (or 
public  school)  intelligible  or  profitable  to  him.  A 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


253 


countryman  of  his,  named  Witke,  who,  at  that 
time,  lived  at  Hamburgh  as  candidate  for  holy 
orders,  and  who  afterwards  died  at  Otterndorf, 
where  he  was  pastor,  gave  him  this  private 
instruction  with  true  cordiality  and  friendship. 
Niebuhr  always  spoke  of  him  as  the  person  who 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  education,  and,  as  such, 
honored  and  loved  him  with  sincere  affection. 
Notwithstanding  his  uncommon  exertions,  and  the 
strength  of  his  body  and  mind,  twenty  months 
(eight  of  which  were  passed  in  nearly  preparatory 
studies,  for  the  Latin  tongue  was  almost  entirely 
unknown  to  him)  were  quite  insufficient  for  one, 
who  began  to  learn  so  late  in  life,  to  acquire  that 
amount  of  knowledge  which  more  favored  youths 
bring  with  them  to  the  university.  Among  other 
things  thus  unavoidably  neglected  was  Greek,  of 
which  he  always  lamented  the  want.  Under 
Biisch  he  had  begun  to  learn  mathematics.  He 
was  the  earliest  and  most  distinguished  of  all  his 
pupils,  and  in  subsequent  life,  became  his  most 
intimate  friend.  To  stop  in  the  middle  of  any 
undertaking  was  thoroughly  repugnant  to  his 
whole  character.  He  had  gone  to  Hamburgh 
solely  with  a  view  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
geometry,  and  of  some  things  commonly  taught 
in  the  schools ;  but  as  soon  as  he  had  become 
acquainted  with  the  sciences,  he  could  not  rest  till 
he  was  able  to  embrace  them  in  all  their  extent 
and  depth.  In  the  spring  of  1757,  he  repaired 
to  Gottingen.  The  mathematics  continued  to  be 
his  favorite  study.  He  was  now  more  than  ever 
compelled,  by  the  diminution  of  his  little  sub- 
stance, to  aim  at  some  employment  by  which  he 
could  maintain  himself,  and  to  which  his  studies 
22 


CARSTEN  KIEBUHE. 


would  lead.  This  he  now  looked  to  in  the  Han- 
overian engineer  corps,  in  which  (as  was  the  case 
in  nearly  the  whole  military  service  of  Germany) 
men  of  efficient  mathematical  attainments  were 
extremely  rare.  There  he  might  hope  to  obtain 
by  merit  a  competent  support.  He  studied  with 
the  steadiness  which  a  fixed,  simple,  and  prudent 
plan  of  life  ensures,  from  the  spring  of  1757  for 
more  than  a  year,  undisturbed  by  the  war  which 
frequently  raged  around  Gottingen.  At  this  time 
he  recollected  that  an  endowment,  or  fund  for 
exhibitions,  existed  at  this  university,  and  begged 
his  friend  to  ascertain  whether  it  was  only  for 
poor  students  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  or 
whether  it  was  endowed  without  that  limitation, 
"  as  a  means  of  persevering  in  the  study  of  some- 
thing useful  and  important.  In  this  case  alone 
could  he  allow  himself  to  apply  for  it."  lie 
received  it  and  appropriated  it  entirely  to  the 
purchase  of  instruments. 

At  this  period  Frederick  the  Fifth  reigned  in 
Denmark  in  enviable  tranquility.  Louis  the 
Fourteenth's  memory  still  shone  throughout  Eu- 
rope, with  all  that  false  glitter  which  had  hung 
around  his  name  during  his  life,  and  he  was  well 
known  to  be  the  model  after  which  the  ministers 
of  the  Danish  monarch  endeavored,  as  far  as  it 
was  compatible  with  the  character  of  a  peaceful 
king,  to  form  their  sovereign.  Seldom,  however, 
have  the  aims  of  ministers  been  less  liable  to 
reproach  than  were  those  of  the  then  baron  J.  H. 
E.  Bernstorf ;  and  among  all  the  statesmen  of 
the  continent,  there  was  not,  perhaps,  one  of  his 
time  so  well  informed,  so  noble  minded,  and  so 
intelligent,    The  extraordinary  and  beneficent 


CAPiSTEN  N1EBUHR. 


255 


qualities  and  endowments  of  the  second  count 
Bernstorf  will  be  remembered  by  a  grateful 
nation,  since  what  he  effected  remains  indestruc- 
tible, and  forms  the  sole,  basis  for  future  reforms 
j.ikI  improvements.  Posterity  will  perhaps  men- 
tion, as  among  the  noblest  actions  of  his  uncle, 
J.  H.  E.  Bernstorf,  the  emancipation  of  his  serfs, 
or  the  slaves  of  the  soil ;  the  leisure  which  he 
insured  to  Klopstock,  and  the  scientific  expedition 
which  he  sent  into  Arabia.  This  enterprise  was 
originally  owing  to  Michaelis,  who  had  represented 
to  the  minister  of  state  that  many  elucidations  of 
the  Old  Testament  might  be  obtained  by  personal 
observation  and  inquiry  in  Arabia,  which  might 
be  regarded  as  hitherto  untrodden  by  European 
feet.  The  original  idea  in  the  mind  of  the  author 
extended  no  farther  than  this  ;  that  a  single  trav- 
eller, an  oriental  scholar  out  of  his  own  school, 
should  be  sent  by  way  of  India  to  Yemen;  a 
plan  which  would  then  have  caused  the  under- 
taking to  end  in  nothing,  even  supposing  the 
traveller  ever  to  have  found  his  way  back.  Hap- 
pily Bernstorf  immediately  perceived  the  defect- 
iveness of  the  plan,  and  replied  to  it  by  a  proposal 
to  render  the  mission  far  more  extensive  in  objects 
and  outfit.  As  Bernstorf  took  up  the  project 
with  all  the  vivacity  and  liberality  for  which  he 
was  so  remarkable,  and  fully  empowered  Mich- 
aelis to  propose  an  oriental  scholar  to  him,  it 
might  have  been  expected  that  Michaelis  would 
have  named  the  man  who,  among  all  his  contem- 
poraries, was  unrivalled  for  his  knowledge  of  the 
Arabic  language,  and,  as  all  Germany  knew,  was 
fighting  inch  by  inch  with  starvation,  —  Reiske, 
—  whom,  moreover,  Michaelis  had  known  from 


25G  CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 

the  time  he  was  at  school.  But  instead  of  Reiske, 
he  recommmended  a  pupil  of  his  own,  Von  Haven, 
whose  acquirements  must,  at  that  time,  have  been 
those  of  a  mere  school-boy,  since  a  two  years' 
residence  at  Rome,  (whither  he  went  to  prepare 
himself  under  the  Maronites,)  and  even  the  jour- 
ney itself,  never  raised  him  above  the  meanest 
mediocrity.  Michaelis  was  also  commissioned  by 
Bernstorf  to  propose  the  mathematicians  and 
natural  historians.  For  the  choice  of  these  men, 
Michaelis  applied  to  Kastner,  one  of  the  Gottin- 
gen  Society  of  Sciences,  of  which  he  was  then 
director.  A  student  of  Hanover,  Bolzing,  at  first 
accepted  the  proposal,  but  after  a  short  time  with- 
drew his  promise.  Kastner  next  proposed  Nie- 
buhr.  One  day  in  the  summer  of  1758,  on  his 
way  from  a  meeting  of  the  Society,  to  which  he 
had  just  proposed  Niebuhr,  he  walked  into  his 
room.  "  Have  you  a  mind  to  go  to  Arabia  ?  "  said 
he.  "  Why  not,  if  any  body  will  pay  my  ex- 
penses," answered  Niebuhr,  whom  nothing  bound 
to  his  home,  and  who  had  an  unbounded  desire 
for  seeing  the  world.  "  The  King  of  Denmark," 
replied  Kastner,  "  will  pay  your  expenses."  He 
then  explained  the  project  and  its  origin.  Nie- 
buhr's  resolution  was  taken  in  a  moment,  so  far 
as  his  own  inclination  was  concerned.  But  as  he 
thought  very  humbly  of  himself,  and  most  rever- 
entially of  science  and  of  the  truly  instructed,  he 
despaired  of  his  own  ability  and  power  of  being 
useful.  On  this  head,  however,  Kastner  set  him 
at  ease  by  the  promise  of  a  long  term  of  prepara- 
tion, which  he  might  employ  chiefly  under  Mayer, 
in  astronomy,  and  by  the  assurance  that,  with  his 
determined  industry  and  perseverance,  the  allotted 


CAItSTEN  NIEBUETR.  257 

time  would  be  fully  sufficient.  The  same  evening 
Niebuhr,  who  wanted  nothing  to  fix  his  resolution 
but  Mayer's  promise  to  instruct  him  in  astronomy, 
called  on  the  philosopher.  Mayer,  who  was  not 
so  sanguine  a  man  as  Kastner,  cautioned  him 
against  a  determination  which,  with  his  character, 
would  be  irrevocable,  while  he  knew  not  the  dan- 
gers and  fatigues  which  he  was  about  to  brave. 
He,  however,  promised  the  desired  instruction. 
Michaelis,  whom  he  visited  the  following  day, 
probably  saw  that  there  was  levity  and  precipita- 
tion in  so  prompt  a  resolution,  and  pressed  upon 
him  to  delay  a  week  to  reconsider  the  matter.  It 
passed,  but  Niebuhr  did  not  trouble  himself  with 
any  further  deliberation  on  a  subject  upon  which 
his  mind  was  already  thoroughly  resolved,  and 
Michaelis  now  regarded  the  engagement  as  defini- 
tively accepted.  His  conditions  were  a  year 
and  a  half  for  preparation ;  and  during  this 
period,  the  same  salary  as  Von  Haven  received. 
Bernstorf  assented  to  this  arrangement  without 
the  slightest  hesitation.  Niebuhr  now  lived  solely 
for  his  object.  He  pursued  his  studies  in  pure 
mathematics,  perfected  himself  in  drawing,  and 
sought  to  acquire  such  historical  information  as 
was  attainable  with  that  degree  of  learning  which 
he  had  so  lately  and  so  imperfectly  acquired,  with- 
out neglecting  his  more  immediate  objects.  He 
cultivated  practical  mechanics,  with  a  view  of 
acquiring  greater  dexterity  in  handling  his  instru- 
ments, and  in  various  manual  operations,  the 
acquirement  and  practice  of  which  in  Europe, 
except  for  those  whose  business  they  are,  is  but  a 
waste  of  time.  His  attention  was,  however,  prin- 
cipally occupied  by  the  private  lessons  of  Mich- 
22* 


258 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


aelis  in  the  Arabic  language,  and  of  Mayer  in 
astronomy.  These  he  remembered  with  very 
different  feelings.  For  the  grammatical  study  of 
languages  in  general  he  had  but  little  talent  or 
inclination.  At  the  end  of  a  few  months  he  gave 
up  this  course  of  instruction. 

Tobias  Mayer  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  first 
astronomors  and  mathematicians  of  his  time. 
The  results  of  his  labors  consist  principally  of  a 
catalogue  of  992  stars,  and  his  famous  lunar 
and  solar  tables.  His  valuable  theory  of  the 
moon,  and  the  laborious  calculation  of  these  tables, 
together  with  the  invention  of  Hadley's  quadrant, 
in  1731,  enabled  Maskelyne  to  bring  into  general 
use  the  method  of  discovering  the  longitude  by 
observing  the  distance  of  the  moon  from  the  sun, 
and  certain  fixed  stars,  called  the  lunar  method. 
Mayer's  zeal  for  teaching  his  pupil  was  as  great 
as  Niebuhrs  for  learning  of  him.  Among  all  the 
men  of  whom  he  became  acquainted  in  the  course 
of  his  long  life,  there  was  none  whom  he  so  loved 
and  honored  as  Mayer  ;  and  the  most  intimate 
friendship  subsisted  between  them.  He  retained 
an  ardent  attachment  to  Mayer's  memory  up  to 
the  most  advanced  age,  and  he  hardly  ever 
received  from  Providence  any  greater  gratification 
than  that  of  hearing  that  his  first  lunar  observa- 
tions reached  his  beloved  teacher  on  his  death-bed, 
before  consciousness  had  left  him,  and  had  cheered 
and  animated  his  last  moments ;  and  that  these 
observations  had  decided  the  giving  the  English 
premium,  offered  for  the  discovery  of  the  longi- 
tude, to  the  widow  of  the  man  to  whom  he  felt 
that  he  was  indebted  for  his  acquirements  in  this 
branch  of  science.    Mayer,  on  his  part,  had  no 


CARSTEX  NIEBUHR. 


259 


more  earnest  solicitude  than  to  educate  a  pupil 
who  would  apply  his  method  of  determining  the 
longitude,  and  his,  at  that  time,  unprinted  lunar 
tables,  of  which  Niebuhr  made  a  copy.  Mayer 
interested  himself  in  the  outfit  of  Niebuhr's  jour- 
ney, so  entirely  as  if  it  had  been  his  own  personal 
affair,  that  he  divided  his  quadrants  with  his  own 
hands.  The  accuracy  of  this  labor  of  friendship 
was  proved  by  the  observations  which  were  made 
with  it.  About  the  time  of  commencing  his  jour- 
ney, Niebuhr  was  appointed  lieutenant  of  engi- 
neers ;  a  circumstance  which  only  deserves  notice 
for  the  sake  of  a  letter  which  places  his  modesty 
and  judgment  in  the  most  amiable  light.  "  He 
was,"  as  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  led  to  think  of  a 
title  for  himself,  by  Yon  Haven's  appointment  to 
a  professorship  in  the  university  of  Copenhagen. 
A  similar  one  had  been  offered  to  him,  but  he 
held  himself  unworthy  of  it.  The  one  which  he 
had  received  appeared  to  him  more  suitable. 
He  might  have  had  that  of  captain,  if  he  had 
asked  for  it ;  but  that,  for  a  young  man,  would 
have  been  too  much.  As  a  lieutenant,  it  would 
be  highly  creditable  to  him  to  make  valuable 
observations  ;  but  as  professor,  he  should  feel  it 
disgraceful  not  to  have  sufficiently  explored  the 
depths  of  mathematical  science."  He  had  at  that 
time  no  other  plan  than  that  of  living  in  his  na- 
tive country,  after  the  accomplishment  of  his 
mission,  on  the  pension  which  was  assigned  to  him. 

The  party  consisted  of  Yon  Haven,  already 
mentioned ;  Forskaal,  in  many  respects,  eminently 
qualified  for  the  undertaking ;  Cramer,  a  physi- 
cian, a  most  unfortunate  choice  ;  Bauernfeind,  a 
draughtsman,  a  respectable  artist,  but  intemper- 


2G0 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


ate  ;  and  Niebuhr.  On  the  10th  of  March,  1761, 
the  travellers  left  the  Elsineur  roads  for  the  Medi- 
terranean. The  voyage  was  a  pleasant  one  to 
Niebuhr.  He  endeavored  to  make  himself  ac- 
quainted with  the  construction  of  the  ship,  and 
he  exercised  himself  daily  in  nautical  and  astro- 
nomical observations,  which  procured  him  the 
satisfaction  of  being  regarded  by  the  officers  as 
an  active  and  useful  member  of  their  company. 
Mayer,  in  the  instructions  which  he  gave  to  Nie- 
buhr, had  constantly  kept  in  view  that  his  pupil 
would  be  placed  in  situations  in  which  it  would  be 
absolutely  necessary  for  him  to  be  able  to  rely 
upon  himself,  and  where  he  could  not  hope  for 
the  slightest  assistance  or  support.  He  had  taught 
him  entirely  himself,  and  encouraged  him  with 
the  assurance  that  an  active  and  clear-sighted 
man  is  generally  able  to  discover  means  to  over- 
come the  obstacles  which  may  oppose  him.  His 
method  of  teaching,  which  was  entirely  practical, 
was  chiefly  this :  he  first  described  to  his  pupil 
the  object  of  the  observation  and  the  method  of 
using  the  instruments ;  he  then  left  him  without 
any  assistance,  to  try  how  far  he  could  proceed  in 
his  observation  and  calculation,  and  desired  him 
to  tell  him  when  he  came  to  any  insurmountable 
difficulty.  He  was  obliged  to  describe  exactly 
how  far  he  had  gone  on  well,  and  where  his  pro- 
gress had  been  stopped,  and  then  Mayer  assisted 
him. 

A  stay  of  some  weeks  at  Marseilles,  and  of  a 
shorter  time  at  Malta,  procured  a  very  agreeable 
recreation  to  the  party.  The  scientific  enterprize 
was  known  throughout  Europe,  and  we  should 
find  it  difficult  now  to  picture  to  ourselves  the 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


261 


universal  interest  in  its  success  which  ensured  to 
the  travellers  the  most  cordial  reception  and  the 
most  respectful  attentions.  It  was  an  enterprize 
consonant  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  in  no 
manner  solitary  or  strange.  Asia  was  become  an 
object  of  interest  to  Europeans  from  the  war 
which  the  two  great  maritime  powers  were  then 
waging  in  India.  England  began  to  send  out 
ships  to  circumnavigate  the  globe.  It  was  just 
that  period  of  general  satisfaction  and  delight  in 
science  and  literature  in  which  mankind  believed 
that  they  had  found  the  road  that  must  inevitably 
lead  to  rapid  advances  in  knowledge  and  improve- 
ments; men  of  letters  enjoyed  great  considera- 
tion ;  and  the  interest  of  science  and  its  followers 
were  generally  regarded  as  among  the  most  im- 
portant in  which  mankind  could  be  engaged. 

From  Malta  the  expedition  proceeded  to  the 
Dardanelles.  In  the  Archipelago,  Niebuhr  was 
attacked  with  the  dysentery,  and  was  near  dying. 
He  recovered  his  health  at  Constantinople,  but  so 
slowly  that  at  the  expiration  of  two  months  from 
the  beginning  of  his  illness  he  had  scarcely  made 
sufficient  progress  to  go  on  board  a  vessel  bound 
for  Alexandria  without  manifest  danger.  In 
Egypt,  the  party  remained  a  whole  year,  in  which 
time  Niebuhr,  in  company  with  Von  Haven  and 
Forskaal,  visited  Mount  Sinai.  During  their  stay 
in  Egypt,  Niebuhr  determined  the  longitude  of 
Alexandria,  Kheira,  Raschid,  and  Damietta,  by 
means  of  numerous  lunar  observations,  with  an 
accuracy  which  the  astronomers  of  Bonaparte's 
expedition,  to  their  great  surprise,  found  fully 
equal  to  their  own.  The  following  is  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  outfit  of  himself  and  his  companions 


262 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


for  their  expedition  to  Mount  Sinai.  "  We  had 
made  careful  provision  for  every  thing  which  we 
thought  necessary  for  the  journey  before  us.  We 
had  abundance  of  eatables,  a  tent,  and  beds. 
Most  of  the  utensils  carried  on  expeditions  in  these 
countries,  have  been  described  and  drawn  by  other 
travellers ;  and  indeed  some  of  them  are  so  con- 
venient, that  they  might  be  introduced  into  Euro- 
pean armies  with  signal  advantage.  Our  little 
kitchen  apparatus  was  of  copper,  well  tinned  in- 
side and  outside.  Our  butter  we  carried  in  a  sort 
of  pitcher,  made  of  thick  leather.  Table  cloths 
we  did  not  want.  A  large  round  piece  of  leather 
was  our  table.  This  had  iron  rings  attached  to 
its  edge,  through  which  a  cord  was  passed.  After 
dinner  it  was  drawn  up,  slung  over  a  camel,  and 
thus  served  the  double  office  of  a  table  and  a  bag. 
Our  coffee  cups  (saucers  we  had  none)  were  car- 
ried in  a  wooden  box  covered  with  leather,  and 
wax  candles  in  a  similar  box,  enclosed  in  a  leath- 
ern bag.  In  the  lid  of  this  box  was  a  tube, 
which  was  our  candlestick.  Salt,  pepper,  and 
spice,  we  also  kept  in  a  little  wooden  box,  with 
several  lids  screwed  one  over  another.  Instead 
of  glasses  we  had  little  copper  cups,  beauti- 
fully tinned  within  and  without.  Our  lanterns 
were  of  linen,  and  could  be  folded  together  like 
the  little  paper  lanterns  which  children  make  in 
Europe,  only  that  ours  had  covers  and  bottoms 
of  iron.  Each  of  us  was  furnished  with  a 
water  pitcher  of  thick  leather,  out  of  which  we 
drank ;  and  as  we  sometimes  found  no  water  for 
two  or  three  days,  we  carried  a  good  many  goat 
skins  filled  with  it.  We  also  took  two  large  stone 
water  jars  with  us,  that  we  might  be  able  to 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


2C3 


carry  water  ourselves  on  the  journey  from  Suez 
to  Djidda.  Our  wine  we  kept  in  large  glass 
flasks,  each  holding  twenty  of  our  bottles.  These 
vessels  appeared  to  us  the  best  for  the  purpose  ; 
but  when  a  camel  falls,  or  runs  against  another 
with  his  load,  they  easily  break,  and  therefore  goat 
skins  are  better  for  the  purpose.  The  hides 
which  are  used  to  contain  water,  have  the  hair  on 
the  outside  ;  but  those  for  wine  have  it  on  the 
inside,  and  are  so  well  pitched,  that  the  liquor 
acquires  no  bad  taste." 

In  this  journey,  Niebuhr  made  astronomical 
and  geographical  observations  as  often  as  possible. 
Out  of  these  laborious  investigations  grew  the 
chart  of  the  Red  sea,  which,  considering  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  it  was  made,  was  a  mas- 
terly work.  Von  Haven  died  about  the  end  of 
May,  1763.  Niebuhr  was  again  attacked  by 
dysentery,  and  was  saved  only  by  the  greatest 
care  and  temperance.  The  climate  and  numerous 
annoyances  which  Forskaal  had  partly  brought 
upon  himself,  and  partly  aggravated  through  his 
caprice,  brought  on  a  bilious  disorder,  of  which  he 
died  at  Jerim,  on  the  11th  of  July,  1763.  Mokha, 
situated  in  the  arid  desert  of  Tehama,  is,  during 
summer,  a  horrible  residence,  and  but  few  days 
elapsed  before  the  surviving  travellers  and  their 
servant  were  attacked  with  the  fever  of  the  cli- 
mate. Bauernfeind  and  the  servant  died  at  sea. 
Cramer  reached  Bombay,  languished  for  some 
months,  and  died.  Niebhur  was  saved  by  that 
extreme  abstemiousness  which  renders  a  tropical 
climate  as  little  dangerous  to  the  Europeans  as  to 
natives.  While  he  was  laboring  under  the  dysen- 
tery, the  physcian  had  told  him  to  abstain  from 


264 


CARSTEN  NIEBUIIR. 


meat,  and  to  eat  nothing  but  bread  and  a  sort  of 
rice  soup.  This  regimen  cured  his  illness.  At 
the  end  of  several  weeks,  the  physician  learned 
with  astonishment,  that  Niebuhr  was  patiently 
continuing  a  diet  by  means  of  which  few  Euro- 
peans could  be  induced  to  purchase  their  lives, 
even  when  laboring  under  dangerous  illness.  The 
reception  which  Niebuhr  met  with  from  the  Eng- 
lish at  Bombay,  was  extremly  cordial.  In  Egypt 
he  had  first  learned  to  delight  in  the  society  of 
Englishmen  ;  and  there  was  laid  the  foundation 
for  that  mutual  attachment  which  ever  after  con- 
tinued uninterrupted.  There  he  learned  the 
English  language.  He  also  made  a  copy  of  his 
journal,  and  sent  it  through  London  to  Denmark. 
After  a  stay  of  fourteen  months  he  left  Bombay, 
visited  Mascat,  and  made  himself  acquainted  with 
the  state  of  the  remarkable  province  of  Oman. 
He  then  proceeded  to  Shiraz  and  Persepolis. 
The  last  night  of  his  journey  to  Persepolis  was 
perfectly  sleepless.  The  picture  of  these  ruins 
remained  during  his  whole  life  indelibly  engraven 
on  his  mind.  They  appeared  to  him  the  crown 
and  glory  of  all  which  he  had  seen.  He  passed 
between  three  and  four  weeks  amidst  them  in  the 
desert,  in  unremitting  labor,  measuring  and  draw- 
ing the  fragments.  From  Shiraz  he  crossed  the 
Persian  gulf  to  Bassora.  In  Persia  he  collected 
historical  documents  concerning  the  fate  of  this 
unfortunate  country,  from  the  death  of  Nadir 
Shah  up  to  his  own  times.  From  Bassora  he 
proceeded  through  Bagdad  and  Mosul  to  Haleb. 
He  was  now  perfectly  at  home ;  since  he  had  been 
alone,  he  had  been  at  liberty  to  conform,  without 
molestation,  to  oriental  manners  and  customs. 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


265 


He  was  also  in  as  good  health  as  at  any  period 
of  his  life.  An  opportunity  of  going  to  Jaffa 
tempted  him  to  visit  Palestine.  After  that,  he 
explored  Lesser  Asia,  and  reached  Constantinople, 
on  the  20th  of  February,  1767.  After  having 
spent  five  months  in  that  city,  he  passed  over 
Turkey  in  Europe  to  Poland,  and  in  November 
reached  Copenhagen.  He  was  received  by  the 
court,  by  the  ministers,  and  by  the  men  of  science, 
with  the  greatest  distinction.  Bernstorf,  particu- 
larly, loaded  him  with  marks  of  his  esteem.  The 
whole  expense  of  the  expedition  was  but  £3,780 
sterling.  It  would  necessarily  have  been  much 
greater  had  not  Niebuhr  been  the  sole  survivor 
for  nearly  the  whole  of  the  last  four  years ;  but 
although  the  sources  of  expense  were  thus  greatly 
diminished,  they  were  still  more  so  by  his  scrupu- 
lous integrity  ;  not  only  in  avoiding  every  outlay 
not  essential  to  the  object,  but  in  paying  out  of  his 
private  pocket  for  every  thing  which  could  be 
regarded  as  a  personal  expense.  Pie  was  now 
employed  for  some  time  in  arranging  his  materials 
and  preparing  his  journal  for  publication.  He 
met  in  this  undertaking  with  almost  innumerable 
difficulties,  owing  to  his  want  of  an  early  literary 
education,  to  his  extreme  modesty,  to  the  removal 
of  his  patron,  Count  Bernstorf,  and  to  the  unpro- 
voked hostility  of  some  of  the  literati  of  the 
country.  In  1773,  he  was  married  to  a  daughter 
of  the  physician,  Blumenberg.  They  had  two 
children,  a  daughter,  and  B.  G.  Niebuhr,  the 
illustrious  author  of  the  most  learned  and  valu- 
able history  of  Rome  which  has  been  written. 

Niebuhr  soon  took  up  his  abode  at  Meldorf, 
having  had  the  office  of  secretary  of  the  district 
23 


2G6 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


given  to  him  by  the  government.  A  great  part 
of  his  time  was  employed  on  his  farm.  He  also 
found  great  satisfaction  in  the  company  of  Boie,  the 
governor  of  the  district.  Meanwhile,  his  children 
grew  to  an  age  to  require  instruction.  This  he 
gave  them  himself.  'k  He  instructed  both  of  us," 
says  his  son,  "in  geography,  and  related  to  ua 
many  passages  of  history.  He  taught  me  English 
and  French  ;  better,  at  any  rate,  than  they  would 
have  been  taught  by  anyone  else  in  such  a  place; 
and  something  of  mathematics,  in  which  he  would 
have  proceeded  much  farther,  had  not  want  of 
zeal  and  desire  in  me  unfortunately  destroyed  all 
his  pleasure  in  the  occupation.  One  thing  was 
indeed  characteristic  of  his  whole  system  of 
teaching;  as  he  had  no  idea  how  any  one  could 
have  knowledge  of  any  kind  placed  before  him, 
and  not  seize  it  with  the  greatest  delight  and 
avidity,  and  hold  to  it  with  the  steadiest  persever- 
ance, he  became  disinclined  to  teach,  whenever 
we  appeared  inattentive  or  reluctant  to  learn.  As 
the  first  instructions  I  received  in  Latin,  before  I 
had  the  happiness  to  become  a  scholar  of  the 
learned  and  excellent  Jager,  were  very  defective, 
he  helped  me,  and  read  with  me  Caesar's  Com- 
mentaries. Here,  again,  the  peculiar  bent  of  his 
mind  showed  itself ;  he  always  called  my  attention 
much  more  strongly  to  the  geography  than  to  the 
history.  The  map  of  ancient  Gaul  by  D'  Anville, 
for  whom  he  had  the  greatest  reverence,  always 
lay  before  us.  I  was  obliged  to  look  out  every 
place  as  it  occurred,  and  to  tell  its  exact  situation. 
His  instruction  had  no  pretension  to  be  grammati- 
cal ;  —  his  knowledge  of  the  language  so  far  as  it 
went,  was  gained  entirely  by  reading,  and  by 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


267 


looking  at  it  as  a  whole.  He  was  of  opinion  that 
a  man  did  not  deserve  to  learn  what  he  had  not 
principally*  worked  out  for  himself ;  and  that  a 
teacher  should  be  only  a  helper  to  assist  the  pupil 
out  of  otherwise  inexplicable  difficulties.  From 
these  causes  his  attempts  to  teach  me  Arabic, 
when  he  had  already  not  that  facility  in  speaking 
it  without  which  it  was  impossible  to  dispense  with 
grammatical  instruction,  to  his  disappointment 
and  my  shame,  did  not  succeed.  When  I  after- 
wards taught  it  myself,  and  sent  him  translations 
from  it,  he  was  greatly  delighted.  I  have  the 
most  lively  recollections  of  many  descriptions  of 
the  structure  of  the  universe,  and  accounts  of 
eastern  countries,  which  he  used  to  tell  me,  instead 
of  fairy  tales,  when  he  took  me  on  his  knee  before 
I  went  to  bed.  I  recollect  too,  that  on  the  Christ- 
mas eve  of  my  tenth  year,  by  way  of  making  the 
day  one  of  peculiar  solemnity  and  rejoicing  to  me, 
he  went  to  a  beautiful  chest  containing  his  manu- 
scripts, which  was  regarded  by  us  children,  and 
indeed  by  the  whole  household,  as  a  sort  of  ark 
of  the  covenant,  took  out  the  papers  relating  to 
Africa,  and  read  to  me  from  them.  He  had 
taught  me  to  draw  maps,  and  with  his  encourage- 
ment and  assistance  I  soon  produced  maps  of 
Habbesh  and  Sudan.  I  could  not  make  him  a 
more  welcome  birth-day  present,  than  a  sketch 
of  the  geography  of  eastern  countries,  or  transla- 
tions from  voyages  and  travels,  executed  as  might 
be  expected  from  a  child.  He  had  originally  no 
stronger  desire  than  that  I  might  be  his  successor 
as  a  traveller  in  the  East.  But  the  influence  of 
a  very  tender  and  anxious  mother,  upon  my  phy- 
sical training  and  constitution,  thwarted  his  plan 


268 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


almost  as  soon  as  it  was  formed.  In  consequence 
of  her  opposition,  my  father  afterwards  gave  up 
all  thoughts  of  it." 

Niebuhr  had  the  satisfaction  to  find  that  his 
merits  as  a  traveller  were  more  and  more  appre- 
ciated. His  works  were  very  popular  in  Eng- 
land. The  crown  prince  of  Denmark  also  showed 
him  distinguished  favor.  In  1802,  he  was  ap- 
pointed foreign  member  of  the  French  National 
Institute.  In  his  various  labors  he  was  indefati- 
gable. In  his  71st  and  72d  years,  he  toiled 
through  a  great  part  of  the  night.  Nor  did  his 
indefatigable  zeal  relax  even  when  his  eyes  began 
to  fail.  The  consequences  of  this  night-work  were 
irremediable  and  fatal.  In  a  short  time  he  could 
no  longer  see  to  read,  and  for  writing  he  required 
an  extraordinary  quantity  of  light,  and  even  then 
the  lines  were  often  intermingled.  His  wife,  after 
many  years  of  suffering,  died  in  1807.  His 
daughter,  and  the  widowed  sister  of  his  wife,  who 
had  lived  with  the  family  for  twelve  years,  could 
now  devote  themselves  wholly  to  render  him  the 
assistance  of  which  he  stood  in  so  much  need. 
Every  thing  was  read  aloud  to  him.  The  con- 
versation of  Gloyer,  his  successor  as  secretary  of 
the  district,  revived  to  his  mind's  eye  many  a 
faded  or  vanished  picture  of  the  East,  and  the 
books  which  this  invaluable  friend  read  aloud  to 
him,  and  the  circumstances,  which  he  related,  put 
him  in  possession  of  the  works  and  statements  of 
more  recent  travellers.  This  was  without  com- 
parison one  of  his  highest  enjoyments.  "  When 
I  related  to  him,"  says  his  son,  "the  descriptions 
of  any  traveller  newly  returned  from  the  East, 
or  gave  him  in  my  letters  any  accounts  of  travels 


CARSTEX  NIEBUHR. 


2G9 


not  known  on  the  continent,  his  whole  being 
seemed  reanimated,  and  he  dictated  answers, 
which  showed  that  his  mental  vision  was  vivid 
and  powerful  as  ever.  It  was  still  more  remark- 
able that  these  new  facts  imprinted  themselves  on 
his  mind  with  all  the  depth  and  sharpness  with 
which  objects  are  stamped  on  a  youthful  memory, 
and  so  remained  up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  He 
combined  them  with  what  he  had  himself  observed 
and  experienced. 

"In  the  autumn  of  1814,"  continues  his  son, 
"  his  appearance  was  calculated  to  leave  a  delight- 
ful picture  in  the  mind.  All  his  features,  as  well 
as  his  extinguished  eyes,  were  the  expression  of 
the  extreme  and  exhausted  old  age  of  an  extraor- 
dinarily robust  nature  ;  —  it  was  impossible  to 
behold  a  more  venerable  sight.  So  venerable  was 
it,  that  a  Cossack  who  entered,  an  unbidden  guest, 
into  the  chamber  where  he  sat  with  his  silver 
locks  uncovered,  was  so  struck  with  it,  that  he 
manifested  the  greatest  reverence  for  him,  and  a 
sincere  and  cordial  interest  for  the  whole  house- 
hold. His  sweetness  of  temper  was  unalterable, 
though  he  often  expressed  his  desire  to  go  to  his 
final  home,  since  all  which  he  had  desired  to  live 
for  had  been  accomplished.  A  numerous,  and  as 
yet  unbroken  family  circle  was  assembled  around 
him,  and  every  day  in  which  he  was  not  assailed 
by  some  peculiar  indisposition,  he  conversed  with 
cheerfulness  and  cordial  enjoyment  on  the  happy 
change  which  had  taken  place  in  public  affairs. 
"We  found  it  very  delightful  to  engage  him  in 
continued  recitals  of  his  travels,  which  he  now 
related  with  peculiar  fulness  and  vivacity.  In 
this  manner  he  spoke  once,  and  in  great  detail,  of 
23* 


270 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


Persepolis,  and  described  the  walls  on  which  he 
had  found  the  inscriptions  and  bas-reliefs,  exactly 
as  one  would  describe  those  of  a  building  visited 
within  a  few  days  and  familiarly  known.  We 
could  not  conceal  our  astonishment.  He  replied, 
that  as  he  lay  in  bed,  all  visible  objects  shut  out, 
the  pictures  of  what  he  had  beheld  in  the  East 
continually  floated  before  his  mind's  eye,  so  that 
it  was  no  wonder  he  could  speak  of  them  as  if  he 
had  seen  them  yesterday.  With  like  vividness 
was  the  deep  intense  sky  of  Asia,  with  its  brilliant 
and  twinkling  host  of  stars  which  he  had  so  often 
gazed  at  by  night,  or  its  lofty  vault  of  blue  by 
day,  reflected,  in  the  hours  of  stillness  and  dark- 
ness, on  his  inmost  soul ;  and  this  was  his  greatest 
enjoyment." 

Towards  evening,  on  the  26th  of  April,  1815, 
some  one  read  to  him  as  usual,  while  he  asked 
questions  which  showed  perfect  apprehension  and 
intelligence.  He  then  sunk  into  a  slumber  and 
departed  without  a  struggle.  A  concourse  of 
people  from  all  parts  of  the  country  attended  his 
body  to  the  grave.  The  funeral  was  solemnized 
with  all  the  honors  which  respect  and  affection 
can  pay.  He  had  attained  the  age  of  eighty-two. 
He  was  extremely  frugal.  Economy  had  become 
a  habit  with  him  in  early  life.  As  a  peasant  lad 
he  drank  nothing  but  water  and  milk ;  and  at  a 
later  period  he  deviated  from  this  simple  diet,  only 
in  compliance  with  the  custom  of  others,  with 
which  he  every  where  made  it  a  rule  to  conform, 
and  he  then  drank  an  extremely  small  quantity 
of  wine.  He  had  no  favorite  dishes  but  the  pea- 
sant fare  of  his  native  land.  "At  the  highest 
point  of  elevation,"  says  his  biographer,  "to 


CARSTEN  NlEBTJHR.  271 

which  he  attained,  fuvored  by  his  prince,  respected 
and  admired  by  the  learned  and  eminent  of  all 
countries,  it  was  his  pride  that  he  was  born  a  pea- 
sant of  Free  Friesland.  His  manners  never  lost 
the  simplicity,  nor  his  morals  the  purity  of  that 
singular  and  estimable  class  of  men.  If  ever 
there  lived  a  man  who  might  safely  and  reason- 
ably be  held  up  to  the  people  as  an  object  of 
imitation,  it  was  Carsten  Niebuhr.  Not  only  was 
he  a  poor  man,  —  an  orphan,  —  bom  in  a  remote 
part  of  a  remote  province,  far  from  all  those  facil- 
ities for  acquiring  knowledge,  which  in  this  age 
and  country  are  poured  out  before  the  feet  of  the 
people ;  he  was  not  even  gifted  in  any  extraor- 
dinary way  by  nature.  He  was  in  no  sense  of 
the  word  a  genius.  He  had  no  imagination.  His 
power  of  acquiring  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
extraordinarily  rapid,  nor  his  memory  singularly 
retentive.  In  all  cases  where  the  force  of  that 
will,  at  once  steady  and  ardent,  which  enabled 
him  to  master  his  favorite  studies,  was  not  brought 
to  bear,  his  progress  was  slow  and  inconsiderable. 
It  is  not  therefore  in  any  supposed  intellectual 
advantages  that  we  must  look  for  the  causes  of 
his  rise  to  eminence.  They  are  to  be  found  rather 
in  the  moral  qualities  which  distinguished  him, 
qualities  attainable  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  by 
men  of  the  humblest  rank,  of  the  most  lowly  in- 
tellect, the  least  favored  by  situation  or  connection. 
He  possessed,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  distin- 
guishing virtues  of  his  country,  sincerity,  unadul- 
terated and  faithful  love  of  truth,  and  honesty. 
The  zeal  with  which  he  gave  himself  to  a  pursuit 
which  might  enable  him  to  be  useful  to  his  native 
district ;  the  total  absence  of  vanity  which  char- 


272 


CARSTEN  NIEBUHR. 


acterized  the  whole  course  of  his  studies  and  of 
his  journeyings  ;  —  the  simplicity  of  his  narrative, 
in  which  no  more  of  himself  and  his  individual 
feelings  appears  than  is  just  necessary  to  keep  up 
the  thread  of  the  story ;  — the  rigorous  accuracy 
and  anxiety  after  truth  for  which  his  travels  have 
ever  been  and  still  remain  pre-eminently  distin- 
guished among  all  who  preceded,  and  all  who 
have  followed  him  on  the  same  ground,  afford 
ample  evidence  of  the  singleness  and  the  steadi- 
ness of  the  motives  which  actuated  him.  The 
most  punctilious  honor  marked  his  disbursement 
of  the  funds  intrusted  to  his  care  by  the  Danish 
government,  and  he  ever  abstained  with  the 
utmost  exactness  from  applying  a  farthing  of  this 
money  to  any  object  which  could  be  considered 
by  others,  or  which  his  own  more  fastidious  deli- 
cacy could  regard,  as  a  personal  gratification. 

"  His  self-command  was  perfect.  He  could 
abstain  from  what  was  agreeable,  and  do  what 
was  disagreeable  to  him.  He  was  conscientious, 
sober,  temperate  even  to  abstemiousness,  laborious 
and  persevering ;  neither  discouraged  nor  elated 
by  the  incidents  which  he  must  have  known  were 
inseparable  from  the  career  which  he  had  chosen." 


JONAS  KING. 


While  the  tribute  of  admiration  is  readily 
awarded  to  such  men  as  Park,  and  Ledyard,  and 
Belzoni,  who  have  manifested  an  unconquerable 
perseverance  and  a  noble  enthusiasm  and  enlarge- 
ment of  views  in  extending  the  boundaries  of 
science,  and  geographical  discovery,  there  is  still 
another  class  of  men  worthy  of  more  exalted  honor. 
We  should  be  among  the  last  to  disparage  the  ef- 
forts of  such  men  as  we  have  named.  We  consider 
them  as  benefactors  of  mankind ;  we  rejoice  that 
they  could  break  away  from  the  call  of  avarice, 
from  the  syren  voice  of  pleasure,  and  from  the 
powerful  attractions  of  home  and  native  land,  and 
spend  their  days  in  travelling  through  savage 
deserts,  encountering  the  fierce  suns  of  the  tropics, 
and  still  fiercer  men.  We  should  rejoice  to  visit 
the  grave  of  Belzoni,  and  remove  the  rubbish 
which  time  or  the  hand  of  the  Bedouin  may  have 
gathered  around  his  tomb.  The  names  of  Horne- 
mann,  and  Salt,  and  Clapperton,  and  Parry,  are 
not  to  be  named  lightly.  They  accomplished  very 
much  for  the  cause  of  science,  and  indirectly  for 
the  moral  and  spiritual  emancipation  of  our  race. 
Most  of  them  were  cut  down  early,  but  they  did 
not  fall  into  an  untimely,  much  less  ..into  a  dis- 
honorable grave.  Their  names  will  be  mentioned 
with  respect  in  every  future  age  of  the  world. 

Notwithstanding,  we  are  called  to  contemplate 
a  higher  species  of  excellence,  a  more  noble  disin- 


274 


JONAS  KING. 


terestedness,  a  more  enduring  renown.  Men  have 
gone  into  all  the  world  to  do  good,  not  to  explore 
pyramids,  nor  to  measure  obelisks,  nor  to  watch 
the  changes  of  heavenly  bodies,  but  to  sympa- 
thize in  human  calamity,  to  give  to  benighted 
men  the  lamp  of  eternal  life,  to  extend  the  reign 
of  civilization  and  of  the  Christian  faith ;  not  to 
6end  back  polished  vases,  and  granite  statues, 
and  classic  fragments,  but  the  report  of  nations 
6aved,  the  joy  of  redeemed  men,  and  the  assured 
promise  of  still  more  glorious  achievements. 
These  men  have  not  despised  science  and  have 
not  been  unmindful  of  classic  recollections.  Still 
they  went  for  a  higher  purpose ;  they  devoted 
themselves  to  a  more  self-denying  work ;  a  nobler 
enthusiasm  filled  their  souls,  a  richer  treasure 
freighted  their  ships.  They  carried  with  them 
the  hopes  of  heaven ;  they  travelled  for  eternity. 
Many  of  them  fell  in  the  first  onset,  but  their 
ashes  rest  in  hope,  and  angels  guard  their  repose. 

Among  the  most  honored  names  in  this  class 
of  the  benefactors  of  man,  is  that  of  Jonas  King. 
In  delineating  a  few  of  the  incidents  in  his  event- 
ful life,  we  are  sure  that  the  consideration  that 
we  may  be  advancing  that  cause  to  which  he  has 
devoted  his  days,  will  apologize  for  what  in  other 
circumstances  might  seem  inconsiderate  or  inex- 
pedient. His  name  is  public  property;  it  is  a 
part  of  his  means  of  doing  good. 

Jonas  King  was  born  in  1793,  at  Hawley,  a 
town  in  the  western  part  of  the  county  of  Frank- 
lin, in  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  His  parents 
were  worthy  and  estimable  people,  but  were  en- 
tirely unable  to  assist  their  son  to  obtain  the  ad- 
vantages of  education.    It  seems  from  the  fact 


JONAS  KING. 


275 


which  we  are  about  to  relate,  that  he  was  not  in 
circumstances  in  his  native  town  to  acquire  that 
common-school  learning,  which  is  the  rich  legacy 
of  nearly  all  the  children  of  New  England. 

In  December,  1807,  William  H.  Maynard,  Esq. 
was  engaged  in  instructing  a  school  in  Plainfield,  a 
town  adjacent  to  Hawley.  One  cold  morning,  on 
entering  his  school-room,  Mr.  Maynard  observed 
a  boy  that  he  had  not  seen  before,  sitting  on  one 
of  the  benches.  The  lad  soon  made  known  his 
errand  to  his  instructor.  —  He  was  fifteen  years 
old;  his  parents  lived  seven  miles  distant;  he 
wanted  an  education,  and  had  come  from  home  on 
foot,  that  morning,  to  see  if  Mr.  Maynard  could 
help  him  contrive  how  to  obtain  it.  Mr.  Maynard 
asked  him  if  he  had  any  acquaintances  in  the 
place  who  would  assist  him  in  acquiring  an  edu- 
cation. "  No."  "  Can  your  parents  render  any 
assistance  ?  "  "  No."  "  Have  you  any  friends 
who  will  help  you?"  "No."  "Well,  how  do 
you  expect  to  obtain  an  education  ?  "  "I  do  n't 
know,  but  I  thought  I  wrould  come  and  see  you." 
Mr.  Maynard  told  him  to  remain  that  day,  and 
he  would  see  what  could  be  done.  He  discovered 
that  3'oung  King  was  possessed  of  good  sense,  but 
of  no  uncommon  brilliancy.  He  was  particularly 
struck  with  the  cool  and  resolute  manner  in  which 
he  undertook  to  conquer  difficulties  which  would 
have  intimidated  common  minds.  In  the  course 
of  the  day,  Mr.  Maynard  made  provision  for  hav- 
ing him  boarded  through  the  winter  in  the  family 
with  himself,  the  lad  paying  for  his  services  by 
manual  labor.  He  gave  himself  diligently  to 
study,  in  which  he  made  commendable  but  not 
rapid  proficiency,  embracing  every  opportunity  of 


276 


JONAS  KING. 


reading  and  conversation  for  obtaining  knowledge ; 
and  thus  he  spent  the  winter. 

The  necessary  preparation  for  college  was 
acquired,  we  believe,  under  the  tuition  of  the 
Rev.  Jeremiah  Hallock,  of  Plainfield.  To  this 
gentleman's  faithful  care  and  thorough  instruction, 
a  large  portion  of  the  young  men  who  have  ac- 
quired a  liberal  education  for  thirty  years  past,  iu 
the  western  counties  of  Massachusetts  and  in  the 
adjoining  portions  of  New  York  and  Vermont  are 
greatly  indebted.  A  majority  of  a  number  of  the 
classes  who  have  been  educated  at  Williams  col- 
lege, pursued  their  classical  preparatory  studies 
at  Plainfield,  and  departed  in  a  body  to  their 
collegiate  residence  with  the  truly  patriarchal 
benedictions  of  their  venerated  instructor. 

After  spending  the  usual  time  of  four  years  at 
Williams  college,  Mr.  King  graduated  in  1816. 
The  class  with  which  he  was  connected  was  high- 
ly respectable,  both  in  numbers  and  talents.  To 
Mr.  King,  at  commencement,  wras  assigned  one 
of  the  principal  appointments,  —  the  philosophical 
oration.  For  means  of  pecuniary  support,  he 
was  almost  wholly  dependent  on  his  own  vigorous 
efforts  in  teaching  school  and  in  other  ways.  By 
the  recommendation  of  the  Rev.  President  Moore, 
which  was  very  full  in  regard  to  all  points,  Mr. 
King  was  admitted  to  the  patronage  of  the  Amer- 
ican Education  Society,  being  the  sixth  on  a  list 
which  now  numbers  more  than  fourteen  hundred. 
The  amount  of  assistance,  however,  which  he  re- 
ceived was  very  limited,  as  the  resources  of  the 
society  were,  at  that  time,  small,  and  his  collegiate 
course  terminated  soon  after  he  received  the 
appropriation. 


JONAS  KING. 


277 


On  leaving  Williams  college,  he  repaired  to  the 
Theological  Seminary  at  Andover,  to  avail  him- 
self of*  the  invaluable  opportunities  which  are 
there  enjoyed  in  the  study  of  the  oriental  langua- 
ges. He  left  the  seminary  after  completing  the 
full  course  in  1819.  Of  his  classmates,  six  are 
missionaries  and  two  are  presidents  of  colleges. 
At  the  foundation  of  the  new  college  in  Amherst, 
in  1821,  Mr.  King  was  immediately  named  as 
professor  of  the  oriental  languages  and  literature. 
A  part  of  the  intervening  time,  between  the  close 
of  his  residence  at  Andover  and  this  appointment, 
was  passed  in  missionary  labors  in  the  southern 
States. 

Feeling  his  need  of  more  ample  preparation, 
to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  professorship,  he 
concluded  to  visit  France,  and  avail  himself  of 
the  eminent  advantages  which  the  French  capital 
holds  out  for  oriental  studies.  His  expenses  were 
defrayed  by  the  hands  of  generous  private  friend- 
ship. After  residing  some  time  in  Paris,  news 
was  received  of  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Levi  Par- 
sons, a  distinguished  missionary  of  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  in 
Palestine.  His  only  associate,  the  Rev.  Pliny 
Fisk,  in  consequence  of  the  bereavement,  greatly 
needed  a  fellow-laborer,  who,  with  a  knowledge 
of  Arabic  and  other  languages,  could  accompany 
him  in  his  contemplated  journeys,  preparatory  to 
the  establishment  of  the  mission  with  which  he 
was  connected.  Having  received  an  intimation 
that  Mr.  King  might  be  induced  to  offer  his 
services  for  a  limited  period,  he  wrote  to  him 
immediately,  earnestly  requesting  that  some  ar- 
rangement might  be  made  to  that  effect.  Mr. 
24 


278 


JONAS  KING. 


King  immediately  endeavored  to  ascertain  the 
path  of  duty,  and  with  the  advice  of  his  intimate 
and  valuable  friend,  S.  V.  S.  Wilder,  Esq.,  an 
American  merchant,  then  residing  in  Paris,  con- 
cluded to  offer  his  services  for  three  years.  Mr. 
Wilder  generously  offered  one  hundred  dollars  a 
year  for  the  time  specified,  and  two  other  gentle- 
men made  liberal  donations  towards  defraying  the 
necessary  expenses.  In  referring  to  the  dangers 
to  which  he  might  be  exposed  by  travelling  in 
unhealthy  climates,  and  by  other  causes,  Mr.  King 
observes :  "  Here  (at  Paris,)  I  see  around  me, 
with  crippled  limbs  and  scarred  bodies,  men  who 
risked  their  lives  at  Jena  and  Marengo,  at  Aus- 
terlitz  and  Waterloo,  to  gain  a  little  perishable 
glory ;  and  shall  not  I  risk  as  much  in  the  cause 
of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  who  gives  to  all  his  faith- 
ful followers  the  high  prize  of  immortal  glory  and 
joys  inconceivable  ? " 

On  Monday,  September  30,  1822,  Mr.  King 
left  Paris  for  Marseilles,  and  passed  through 
Fontainbleau,  Fontenay,  Lyons,  Nismes,  &c.  We 
copy  a  few  extracts  from  his  very  interesting 
journal.  "  On  the  first  of  October,  awoke  in  the 
morning  just  as  the  twilight  appeared.  I  had 
rode  all  night.  When  I  fell  asleep  it  was  rainy, 
dark  and  cheerless ;  but  the  rain  was  now  past, 
and  the  clouds  were  all  dispersed,  except  a 
light,  fleecy  girdle,  hanging  round  the  horizon, 
above  which,  in  the  east,  the  morning  star  seemed 
to  twinkle  with  uncommon  beauty,  and  in  the  west 
the  moon,  just  past  the  full,  was  looking  mildly 
down  upon  the  Loire,  whose  waters  faintly  re- 
flected her  light  as  they  glided  silently  along  at 
the  foot  of  the  elevation  on  which  I  rode.  As 


JONAS  KING. 


279 


daylight  increased,  cultivated  hills,  beautiful  vine- 
yards, and  fertile  plains  rose  to  my  view,  and 
presented  one  of  the  most  lovely  scenes  I  had 
ever  witnessed." 

At  Lyons,  Mr.  King  remarks,  "  My  emotions 
were  indescribable.  I  stood  on  a  spot  where  the 
Komans  had  once  resided,  where  their  emperors 
had  lived  and  erected  magnificent  temples  to  their 
idols,  where  Hannibal  and  Caesar  with  their  con- 
quering armies  had  passed  along,  where  hordes 
of  Saracens  had  spread  their  desolations,  and 
where  Pothinus  and  Irenasus  with  nineteen  thou- 
sand followers  took  their  flight  to  glory  amid  the 
flames  of  persecution.  I  followed  them,  in  my 
imagination,  through  their  last  conflict,  till  I  saw 
them  bowing  before  the  throne  of  God  and  joining 
in  ascriptions  of  praise  to  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain." 

On  the  28th  of  October,  while  sailing  out  of 
the  harbor  of  Marseilles,  Mr.  King  exclaims :  "  I 
could  not  but  feel  some  emotions  on  leaving  a 
country  where  I  had  spent  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting years  of  my  life.  Land  of  science  and  of 
sin,  of  gaiety  and  pleasure,  I  bid  thee  farewell ! 
The  sun  shines  brightly  on  thy  beautiful  fields, 
the  mild  gales  breathe  softly  on  thy  enchanting 
hills ;  and  along  the  borders  of  thy  streams,  in  the 
midst  of  vines  and  olives,  lie  scattered  the  cottages 
of  peasants  and  the  mansions  of  nobles.  Thou 
hast  within  thy  bosom  all  that  can  gratify  genius, 
and  taste,  and  sense.  Oh,  when  shall  the  spirit  of 
Massillon  rest  upon  thy  priests !  When  shall  the 
liirht  of  millenial  glory  dawn  upon  thy  population  ! 
With  fervent  prayers  for  thy  prosperity,  I  bid 
thee  farewell I" 


280 


JONAS  KTXGr. 


On  the  second  of  November,  Mr.  King  reached 
Malta,  and  was  warmly  welcomed  by  the  mission- 
aries, Messrs.  Fisk  and  Temple.  On  the  10th 
of  January,  1823,  Mr.  King,  in  company  with 
Messrs.  Fisk  and  Wolff,  reached  Alexandria,  in 
Egypt.  In  this  city  they  were  actively  employed 
about  ten  days,  when  they  departed  for  Rosetta 
and  Cairo.  In  the  course  of  their  travels  through 
this  land  of  signs  and  wonders,  they  took  occasion 
to  visit  many  specimens  of  ancient  art  and  science. 
In  describing  the  antiquities  of  Gornon,  near  the 
hundred-gated  Thebes,  the  travellers  remark : 
"  The  principal  room  in  the  tomb  visited  by  Bel- 
zoni,  was  fifty  feet  by  thirty.  Here,  when  the 
tomb  was  opened,  was  a  sarcophagus  of  alabaster, 
which  has  been  removed  to  London,  and  is  now 
in  the  museum.  Adjoining  this  is  a  room  thirty 
feet  square,  on  three  sides  of  which  is  a  projection 
which  forms  a  kind  of  table.  All  the  walls  of  the 
rooms  and  of  the  passages  are  covered  with  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  finest  kind.  In  one  place  are 
portrayed  priests,  dressed  in  white,  handling  ser- 
pents ;  in  another,  persons  offering  sacrifices ;  in  a 
third,  a  company  of  prisoners ;  in  a  fourth,  dead 
bodies,  &c.  All  these  apartments  are  cut  out  of 
the  solid  rock.  How  much  labor  to  prepare  a 
tomb  for  one  man ! " 

After  visiting  many  other  interesting  spots,  the 
travellers  returned  to  Cairo.  The  time  which 
they  spent  in  Egypt  was  about  three  months.  In 
connection  with  Mr.  Wolff,  they  preached  the  gos- 
pel in  English,  French,  German,  Italian,  Greek, 
Hebrew  and  Arabic,  distributed  about  nine  hun- 
dred copies  of  the  Bible,  or  parts  of  it,  in  twelve 
languages,  and  nearly  three  thousand  tracts. 


JONAS  KING. 


281 


On  the  seventh  of  April,  1823,  Mr.  King,  after 
suffering  severely  from  the  scorching  winds  of 
the  desert  and  from  the  want  of  water,  reached 
the  "promised  land."  We  extract  a  few  para- 
graphs in  regard  to  the  journey. 

"After  some  refreshment  we  took  a  Persian 
Testament  and  Genesis  in  Arabic  and  went  to 
Hadgi  Mohammed,  the  dervish.  We  sat  down 
with  him  on  his  blanket  spread  on  the  sand,  with 
the  sun  beating  on  our  heads,  and  then  showed 
him  our  books.  He  reads  well  in  Persian  and 
Arabic.  Of  the  other  dervishes  not  one  knows 
how  to  read.  While  we  were  reading  with  him, 
most  of  the  dervishes  and  several  Turks  and 
Armenians  gathered  around  and  listened.  Mo- 
hammed read  in  Genesis,  and  said  that  it  was 
very  good.  Another  Turk  then  took  it,  and  read 
that  God  rested  on  the  seventh  day,  and  remarked 
angrily  that  it  was  infidelity  to  say  that  God  rested. 
Mr.  Wolff  tried  to  explain,  but  to  no  purpose,  till 
he  said  he  had  given  such  a  book  to  the  Mufti  of 
Jerusalem,  who  said  it  was  good.  This  argument 
silenced  him  at  once.  We  gave  the  book  of  Gen- 
esis to  Mohammed.  While  we  were  sitting  with 
him,  Elias,  the  Maronite,  began  to  beat  his  mother, 
because  she  did  not  cook  his  victuals  as  he  wished. 
Mr.  Wolff  went  to  him  and  reproved  him  severely 
for  such  conduct.  The  Turks  said,  tauntingly, 
'He  is  a  Christian.'  We  were  glad  they  heard 
Mr.  Wolff's  admonition,  in  which  he  showed  them 
how  inconsistent  his  behaviour  was  with  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel.  The  unnatural  man  at  length 
relented,  and  went  to  his  mother  and  kissed  her 
hand  in  token  of  acknowledgment.  Towards  even- 
ing, two  Turks  had  a  dispute,  which  finally  led  to 
24* 


282 


JONAS  KING. 


blows.  Hadgi  Ibrahim  interfered,  and  by  loud 
•words  and  a  few  blows  settled  the  quarrel.  After 
this,  the  dervish  Mustapha  became  very  angry 
with  his  ass,  and,  like  Balaam,  fell  to  beating  him, 
and  concluded  by  calling  him  a  Jew  !  " 

On  the  14th  of  March,  the  travellers  experien- 
ced a  strong  scorching  wind  from  the  south  east. 
The  air  seemed  as  if  it  issued  from  the  mouth  of 
an  oven.  Many  of  the  Arabs  bound  a  handker- 
chief over  their  mouths  and  noses,  as  a  defence 
against  it.  The  thermometer  in  their  tent  was  at 
99°.  The  wind  sometimes  blew  the  sand  over 
the  hills  like  snow  in  a  storm. 

About  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  2oth  of 
April,  they  "stood  within  the  gates  of  Jerusalem." 
"  The  scenes  and  events  of  four  thousand  years," 
say  they,  "rushed  upon  our  minds;  events  in 
which  Heaven,  and  Earth,  and  Hell,  had  felt  the 
deepest  interest.  This  was  the  place  selected  by 
the  Almighty  for  his  dwelling,  and  here  his  glory 
was  rendered  visible.  This  was  the  perfection  ot' 
beauty  and  the  glory  of  all  lands.  Here  David 
sat  and  tuned  his  harp,  and  sung  the  praises  of 
Jehovah.  Hither  the  tribes  came  up  to  worship. 
Here  enraptured  prophets  saw  bright  visions  of 
the  world  above,  and  received  messages  from  on 
high  for  guilty  man.  Here  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
came  in  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  groaned,  and 
wept,  and  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death,  for  the 
redemption  of  man." 

While  resident  in  this  country,  Mr.  King  visited 
the  principal  towns,  and  objects  of  curiosity  in 
Palestine,  resided,  some  time,  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  Arabic,  at  a  monastery  on  Mount  Leba- 
non, and  performed  various  tours  in  the  surround- 
ing regions  of  Syria,  and  the  ancient  Phoenicia. 


JONAS  KING. 


283 


On  the  26tli  of  September,  1825,  three  years 
after  leaving  Paris,  Mr.  King  finally  departed 
from  the  Holy  Land,  proceeded  to  Tarsus,  the 
birth-place  of  Paul,  and  from  thence  travelled  by 
land  to  Smyrna,  where  he  arrived  on  the  23d  of 
December,  eighty-nine  days  after  leaving  his 
brethren  in  Syria.  At  Smyrna  he  remained  till 
the  15th  of  June,  1826,  in  the  study  of  modern 
Greek,  and  then  passed  by  land  to  the  sea  of 
Marmora,  and  across  that  sea  to  Constantinople. 
*  While  in  this  city,"  Mr.  King  remarks,  "  I 
viewed  the  place  from  the  tower  of  Pera.  The 
prospect  is  enchanting.  Hills  and  valleys  covered 
with  the  habitations  of  600,000  souls  ;  the  mighty 
domes  and  lofty  minarets  of  mosques ;  the  palace 
of  the  sultan,  encircled  with  gardens,  beautiful  as 
Eden  ;  the  waters  of  the  Bosphorus,  and  the  sea 
of  Marmora,  dividing  the  continent  of  Europe 
and  Asia,  and  whitened  with  sails;  and  lofty 
mountains,  among  which  is  Olympus,  with  ever- 
lasting snows  upon  his  hoary  head ;  all  combine 
to  present  a  view,  perhaps  unequalled  for  beauty 
and  grandeur,  in  any  part  of  the  world." 

While  in  Syria,  Mr.  King  published  a  Fare- 
well Letter,  having  special  reference  to  the 
Armenian  population.  This  letter  being  transla- 
ted into  Turkish,  with  considerable  additions,  by 
Mr.  Goodell,  found  its  way  to  Constantinople,  and 
produced  a  very  great  excitement  among  the 
hundred  thousand  Armenians  in  that  capital. 

Mr.  King  returned  by  water  to  Smyrna,  in 
July.  In  August  he  went  on  board  the  United 
States'  ship  Erie,  bound  to  Mahon,  in  Minorca, 
and  touched  at  Tripoli  and  Algiers  in  Africa,  on 
his  way  to  that  port    From  thence  he  proceeded 


284 


JONAS  KING. 


to  Spain,  France,  and  England,  making  some  stay 
in  the  two  latter  countries. 

To  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  Armenian 
population,  Mr.  King  secured  donations  in  France 
and  England,  to  the  amount  of  about  eight  hund- 
red dollars,  with  which  he  purchased  fonts  of 
Armenian  and  Arabic  types.  Among  the  con- 
tributors were  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
benefactors  and  philanthropists  of  the  age.  A 
printing  press,  for  the  Armenian  language,  was 
forwarded  to  Malta  about  the  same  time. 

3Ir.  King  arrived  in  his  native  country  on  the 
4th  of  September,  1827.  During  six  or  eight 
months  subsequent,  he  was  employed  on  agencies, 
in  the  northern  and  middle  States,  in  behalf  of 
the  missionary  cause.  Having  been  invited  by  a 
number  of  friends,  to  proceed  to  Greece  in  one  of 
the  vessels  which  was  to  carry  out  supplies  to  the 
afflicted  inhabitants  of  that  country,  he  resigned 
his  professorship  of  the  Oriental  languages  in 
Amherst  college,  and  early  in  June,  1828,  em- 
barked at  New  York,  for  Greece.  He  arrived  at 
Paros  on  the  26th  of  July,  and  was  cordially  wel- 
comed by  the  Greek  government.  He  soon  after 
resumed  his  connection  with  the  American  Board, 
and  ever  since  has  been  actively  engaged,  chiefly 
at  Athens,  in  establishing  schools,  in  circulating 
the  Scriptures,  school  books,  and  tracts,  and  dif- 
fusing, in  various  ways  the  principles  of  knowl- 
edge and  Christianity.  For  several  years  he  had 
under  his  control  a  high  school  at  Athens,  which 
at  one  time  contained  nearly  two  hundred  schol- 
ars ;  and  his  influence  on  the  schools  and  the 
education  of  Greece  has  been  great  and  salutary. 
The  Greek  national  education  is  more  truly  reli- 


JONAS  KING. 


285 


gious,  more  effective  in  developing  moral  senti- 
ments and  a  real  independence  of  thought,  than 
it  would  have  been  but  for  Mr.  King;  and  the 
national  mind  of  that  people  has  received,  through 
his  labors,  several  fundamental  ideas,  which  must 
exert  great  influence  upon  the  future  develop- 
ments of  that  mind. 

It  is  believed  that  Greece  must  ultimately  be 
blessed  with  religious  liberty,  notwithstanding  the 
apparent  tendency  of  things  has  of  late  years  been 
the  other  way.  Education  has  gradually  been 
brought  under  an  ecclesiastical  influence  adverse 
to  its  freedom  in  matters  of  religion.  The  Greek 
Catechism  having  been  forced  into  the  schools, 
Mr.  King  was  obliged  to  retire  from  all  immediate 
connection  with  them.  The  ecclesiastical  influ- 
ence was  strikingly  apparent  in  the  Constitution 
adopted  by  the  Greeks  in  the  year  1844,  which 
forbids  proselyting,  and  has  subjected  Mr.  King 
to  the  trial  of  persecution  for  righteousness'  sake. 

Soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  Mr. 
King  was  charged  in  the  newspapers  at  Athens, 
with  an  attempt  at  proselytism ;  and  the  charge 
was  soon  followed  by  the  allegation,  that  he  had 
uttered  impious  and  injurious  language  respecting 
the  Virgin  Mary.  Mr.  King  prepared  and  pub- 
lished a  small  volume,  defending  himself  from  the 
charge,  by  quoting  at  considerable  length  the  sen- 
timents of  Epiphanius,  Chrysostom,  Clemens,  and 
others,  names  held  in  the  highest  esteem  by  the 
Greeks,  and  showing  that  their  belief  accorded 
with  his  own.  This  volume  he  sent  to  the  most 
distinguished  men  in  the  Greek  nation,  civil  and 
ecclesiastical,  and  it  made  a  strong  impression. 
Several  persons  of  distinction  gave  their  voice  in 


286 


JONAS  KING. 


its  favor.  The  Greek  Synod,  however,  denounced 
the  book,  and  demanded  of  the  government  his 
prosecution  for  proselytism.  The  book  was  also 
denounced  by  the  "  Great  Church"  at  Constan- 
tinople. Soon  after,  he  was  assaulted  by  a  fanati- 
cal Greek  in  the  streets  of  Athens,  with  the  intent 
to  do  him  injury,  if  not  to  take  his  life,  but  a 
soldier  interfered  and  delivered  him. 

The  case  came  to  a  trial  in  the  civil  courts, 
first,  whether  the  charges  against  him  were  open 
to  a  legal  prosecution.  It  was  carried  at  length 
to  the  Areopagus,  in  April,  1846.  He  thus  wrote 
in  May ;  — 

"  My  two  lawyers,  Paul  Calligas  and  Spyridon 
Triantaphylles,  spoke  well.  After  them  I  asked 
permission  of  the  President  of  the  court,  Mr. 
Clonaris,  to  speak.  He  replied,  you  have  your 
lawyers.  But,  said  I,  I  have  a  word  also.  Say 
on,  said  he.  So  I  commenced  and  continued  to 
speak  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  in  the  midst 
of  repeated  interruptions  on  the  part  of  the  Presi- 
dent, who  finally,  just  as  I  had  reached  the  sub- 
ject of  images,  silenced  me  altogether.  Seeing 
that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  proceed  any  fur- 
ther, without  exposing  myself  to  be  put  under 
arrest,  I  ceased.  And  I  have  since  thought  that 
it  was  providential,  in  order  to  save  me  from 
the  ill  treatment  which  I  might  have  received, 
had  I  finished  all  I  had  to  say  on  the  subject  of 
images  and  transubstantiation. 

"  I  am  told  that  the  most  distinguished  lawyers 
of  Athens,  who  were  present  at  my  trial,  have 
expressed  their  opinion  that  there  is  no  cause  of 
accusation  against  me. 

"  Yesterday  the  decision  of  the  court  of  the 


JONAS  KING. 


287 


Areopagus  was  given  against  me.  So  now  I 
must  be  tried  before  the  criminal  court,  where  all 
thieves  and  robbers  and  murderers  are  tried.  I 
shall  be  tried,  I  suppose,  by  a  jury ;  but  what  jury 
will  have  independence  enough  to  declare  me 
innocent,  after  the  Holy  Synod  has  declared  me 
guilty  of  blasphemy,  and  after  three  courts  have 
found  cause  of  complaint  against  me  ? 

"  My  trial  is  to  be  at  Syra,  July  22,  just  one 
year  from  the  time  I  began  to  distribute  the  little 
book  called  my  4  Defence.'  If  I  am  condemned, 
I  suppose  I  shall  on  that  day,  be  imprisoned  at 
Syra.  My  two  lawyers,  Paul  Calligas  and  Spy- 
ridon  Triantaphylles,  will  be  there  to  plead 
my  cause  ;  which,  I  believe,  they  have  conscien- 
tiously undertaken  to  defend.  Their  pleas  before 
the  Areopagus,  already  published,  have  produced 
and  are  producing,  a  happy  influence  in  my  favor, 
as  I  have  reason  to  believe.  And  not  only  did 
they  come  out  boldly  before  the  Areopagus,  but 
in  private  circles  they  plead  my  cause,  I  believe, 
and  have  done  much  to  convince  many  persons 
that  it  is  just.  At  Syra  they  will  probably  enter 
into  the  subject  of  my  trial  much  more  theologi- 
cally than  they  could  before  the  Areopagus ;  for 
this  tribunal  is  confined  principally  to  the  right 
application  of  the  law,  but  does  not  enter  into  the 
subject,  to  determine  whether  the  person  accused 
is  guilty,  or  not,  of  the  charge  brought  against 
him.  Should  the  jury  decide  in  my  favor,  and 
igainst  the  Holy  Synod,  it  will  be  wonderful,  and 
vill  have  great  influence,  I  doubt  not,  in  opening 
he  eyes  of  many  to  see  the  real  situation  of  this 
:hurch. 

"A  judge  here,  and  representative  of  the  na- 


288 


JONAS  KING. 


tion,  said  to  my  wife,  day  before  yesterday,  that 
he  thought  I  might  be  in  great  danger  at  Syra, 
when  I  go  there  to  be  tried;  that  the  people 
might  arise  and  stone  me ;  and  that  it  would  be 
better  to  have  the  case  put  off,  if  I  could,  for  a 
while,  &c.  But  I  trust  the  Lord,  who  has  thus 
far  protected  me,  will  protect  me  to  the  end.  My 
duty  is  clear ;  and  that  is,  to  go  to  Syra  and  take 
what  comes.  I  have  not  been  wholly  without 
apprehensions  as  to  what  may  befall  me  there ; 
still  I  do  not  feel  very  anxious  with  regard  to  it. 
The  hand  of  the  Lord  has  appeared  to  be  so 
manifest  in  all  this  affair,  from  the  commencement 
to  the  present  time,  that  I  feel  that  I  shall  live, 
and  in  some  way  or  other  gain  the  victory." 

The  result  of  this  prosecution  is  not  known 
when  this  edition  goes  to  the  press. 

The  degree  of  Doctor  in  Divinity  has  been 
conferred  on  Mr.  King  by  one  of  the  colleges  of 
New  England. 

We  close  this  brief  memoir  with  a  letter  from 
Mr.  King,  as  honorable  to  his  feelings  as  it  was 
gratifying  to  the  gentlemen  connected  with  the 
Society  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

"  Tenos,  (Greece,)  27th  May,  1830. 
"In  the  year  of  1816,  as  near  as  I  recollect, 
just  as  I  was  about  finishing  my  collegiate  studies, 
I  received  from  the  American  Education  Society 
a  donation  of  fifty  dollars  ;  and  though  it  was  not 
expected,  as  I  suppose,  by  the  Society,  that  I 
should  ever  refund  that  sum,  and  though,  since 
the  refunding  system  has  been  adopted,  it  is  the 
custom  of  the  Society,  as  I  am  informed,  with 
regard  to  that  system,  to  make  an  exception  in 


JONAS  KING. 


289 


favor  of  missionaries,  still  I  am  happy  to  return 
the  above  mentioned  sum,  with  the  interest, 
which,  by  this  time  nearly  equals  the  principal ; 
and  I  therefore  send  you  one  hundred  dollars, 
which  I  wish  you  to  accept  as  payment  for  the 
fifty  dollars  which  I  received  about  fourteen  years 
ago.  It  is  not  long,  since  I  have  had  it  in  my 
power  to  remit  this  sum,  which  I  hope  may  be 
the  means  of  aiding  some  one  more  worthy  than 
myself." 


25 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


Humphrey  Davy  was  born  at  Penzance,  in 
Cornwall,  England,  in  1778.  His  father  followed 
the  profession  of  a  carver  in  wood,  in  that  town, 
where  many  of  his  performances  are  still  to  be 
seen  in  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants.  All  that 
we  are  told  of  Davy's  school  education  is,  that  he 
was  taught  the  rudiments  of  classical  learning  at 
a  seminary  in  Truro.  He  was  then  placed  by 
his  father,  with  an  apothecary  and  surgeon  in  his 
native  place ;  but  instead  of  attending  to  his  pro- 
fession, he  spent  his  time  either  in  rambling  about 
the  country  or  in  experimenting  in  his  master's 
garret,  sometimes  to  the  no  small  danger  of  fhe 
whole  establishment.  The  physician  and  Davy 
at  last  agreed  to  part. 

When  rather  more  than  fourteen  years  old,  he 
was  placed  as  pupil  with  another  surgeon  residing 
in  Penzance  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  his  sec- 
ond master  had  much  more  success  than  his  first, 
in  attempting  to  give  him  a  liking  for  the  medical 
profession.  The  future  philosopher,  however,  had 
already  begun  to  devote  himself,  of  his  own  accord, 
to  those  sciences  in  which  he  afterwards  so  greatly 
distinguished  himself ;  and  proceeding  upon  a  plan 
of  study  which  he  had  laid  down  for  himself,  he 
had,  by  the  time  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  ob- 
tained a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  rudiments  of 
natural  philosophy  and  chemistry,  as  well  as  made 
some  proficiency  in  botany,  anatomy  and  geom-i- 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


291 


try.  The  subject  of  metaphysics,  it  is  stated,  was 
also  embraced  in  his  reading  at  this  period. 

But  chemistry  was  the  science  to  which,  of  all 
others,  he  gave  himself  with  the  greatest  ardor ; 
and,  even  in  this  early  stage  of  his  researches,  he 
seems  to  have  looked  forward  to  reputation  from 
his  labors  in  this  department.  "  How  often,"  said 
he,  in  the  latter  period  of  his  life,  "  have  I  wan- 
dered about  those  rocks  in  search  after  new  mine- 
rals, and  when  tired  sat  down  upon  those  crags, 
and  exercised  my  fancy  in  anticipations  of  future 
renown."  The  peculiar  features  of  this  part  of 
the  country  doubtless  contributed  not  a  little  to 
give  his  genius  the  direction  it  took.  The  mine- 
ral riches  concealed  under  the  soil  formed  alone  a 
world  of  curious  investigation.  The  rocky  coast 
presented  a  geological  structure  of  inexhaustible 
interest.  Even  the  various  productions  cast 
ashore  by  the  sea  were  continually  affording  new 
materials  of  examination  to  his  inquisitive  and 
reflecting  mind.  The  first  original  experiment,  it 
is  related,  in  which  he  engaged,  had  for  its  object 
to  ascertain  the  nature  of  the  air  contained  in  the 
bladders  of  sea-weed.  At  this  time  he  had  no 
other  laboratory  than  what  he  contrived  to  furnish 
for  himself,  by  the  assistance  of  his  master's  vials 
and  gallipots,  the  pots  and  pans  used  in  the  kitchen, 
and  such  other  utensils  as  accident  threw  in  his 
way.  These  he  converted  with  great  ingenuity 
to  his  own  purposes.  On  one  occasion,  however, 
he  accounted  himself  particularly  fortunate  in  a 
prize  which  he  made.  This  was  a  case  of  surgical 
instruments  with  which  he  was  presented  by  the 
surgeon  of  a  French  vessel  that  had  been  wrecked 
on  the  coast,  to  whom  he  had  done  some  kind 


292 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


offices.  Examining  his  treasure  with  eagerness, 
Davy  soon  perceived  the  valuable  aid  he  might 
derive  in  his  philosophical  experiments  from  some 
of  the  articles.  One  of  the  principal  of  them  was, 
in  no  long  time,  converted  into  a  tolerable  air- 
pump.  The  proper  use  of  the  instruments  was, 
of  course,  as  little  thought  of  by  their  new  posses- 
sor as  that  of  his  master's  gallipots  which  he  was 
wont  to  carry  up  to  his  garret.  Davy's  subse- 
quent success  as  an  experimentalist,  was  owing 
in  no  small  degree  to  the  necessity  he  was  placed 
under,  in  his  earlier  researches,  of  exercising  his 
skill  and  ingenuity  in  this  manner.  "  Had  he," 
remarks  his  biographer,  "been  supplied,  in  the 
commencement  of  his  career,  with  all  those  ap- 
pliances, which  he  enjoyed  at  a  later  period,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  he  might  have  never  ac- 
quired that  wonderful  tact  of  manipulation,  that 
ability  of  suggesting  expedients,  and  of  contriving 
apparatus  so  as  to  meet  and  surmount  the  difficul- 
ties, which  must  constantly  arise  during  the  pro- 
gress of  the  philosopher  through  the  unbeaten 
tracks  and  unexplored  regions  of  science.  In  this 
art,  Davy  certainly  stands  unrivalled ;  and,  like 
his  prototype,  Scheele,  he  was  unquestionably  in- 
debted for  his  address  to  the  circumstances  which 
have  been  alluded  to.  There  was  never,  perhaps, 
a  more  striking  exemplification  of  the  adage,  that 
4  necessity  is  the  parent  of  invention.' " 

Davy  first  pursued  his  chemical  studies  without 
teacher  or  guide,  in  the  manner  which  has  been 
described,  and  aided  only  by  the  most  scanty  and 
rude  apparatus.  When  still  a  lad,  however,  he 
was  fortunate  in  becoming  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Gregory  Watt,  6on  of  the  celebrated  James  Wait. 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


293 


This  gentleman  having  come  to  reside  at  Penzance 
for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  lodged  at  Mrs.  Davy's, 
and  soon  discovered  the  talent  of  her  son.  The 
scientific  knowledge  of  Mr.  Watt  gave  an  accurate 
direction  to  the  studies  of  the  young  chemist,  and 
excited  him  to  a  systematic  perseverance  in  his 
favorite  pursuit.  He  was  also  providentially  in- 
troduced to  the  notice  of  Mr.  Davies  Gilbert,  since 
president  of  the  Royal  Society. 

The  boy,  we  are  told,  wras  leaning  on  the  gate 
of  his  fathers  house,  when  Mr.  Gilbert  passed, 
accompanied  by  some  friends,  one  of  whom  re- 
marked, that  there  was  young  Davy,  who  was  so 
much  attached  to  chemistry.  The  mention  of 
chemistry  immediately  fixed  Mr.  Gilbert's  atten- 
tion ;  he  entered  into  conversation  with  the  young 
man,  and  becoming  speedily  convinced  of  his  ex- 
traordinary talents  and  acquirements,  offered  him 
the  use  of  his  library,  and  whatever  other  assist- 
ance he  might  require  in  the  pursuit  of  his  studies. 
Mr.  Gilbert  and  Mr.  Watt,  soon  after  this,  intro- 
duced Davy  to  the  celebrated  Dr.  Beddoes,  who 
had  just  established  at  Bristol  what  he  called  his 
Pneumatic  Institution  for  investigating  the  medical 
properties  of  the  different  gases.  Davy,  who  was 
now  in  his  nineteenth  year,  had  for  some  time 
been  thinking  of  proceeding  to  Edinburgh,  in 
order  to  pursue  a  regular  course  of  medical  edu- 
cation ;  but  Dr.  Beddoes,  who  had  been  greatly 
struck  by  different  proofs  which  he  had  given  of 
his  talents,  and  especially  by  an  essay  in  which 
he  propounded  an  original  theory  of  light  and 
heat,  having  offered  him  the  superintendence  of 
his  new  institution,  he  at  once  accepted  the  invi- 
tation. "The  young  philosopher,"  remarks  a 
25* 


294 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


biographer,  "  was  now  fairly  entered  on  his  proper 
path,  and  from  this  period  we  may  consider  him 
as  having  escaped  from  the  disadvantages  of  his 
early  lot.  But  it  was  while  he  was  yet  poor  and 
unknown,  that  he  made  those  acquirements  which 
both  obtained  for  him  the  notice  of  his  efficient 
patrons,  and  fitted  him  for  the  situation  in  which 
they  placed  him.  His  having  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  Mr.  Gilbert,  as  he  stood  at  his  fathers 
gate,  may  be  called  a  happy  incident  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God ;  but  it  was  one  that  never  would 
have  happened  had  it  not  been  for  the  proficiency 
he  had  already  made  in  science  by  his  own  en- 
deavors. He  had  this  opportunity  of  emerging 
from  obscurity ;  but  had  he  not  previously  labored 
in  the  cultivation  of  his  mind,  it  would  have  been 
no  opportunity  at  all." 

The  experiments  conducted  by  Davy,  and  under 
his  direction,  at  the  Bristol  institution,  were  soon 
rewarded  by  important  results  ;  and  of  these  Davy, 
when  he  had  just  completed  his  twenty-first  year, 
published  an  account,  under  the  title  of  ".Re- 
searches, chemical  and  philosophical,  chiefly  con- 
cerning nitrous  oxide,  and  its  respiration."  In 
this  publication,  the  singularly  intoxicating  effects 
produced  by  the  breathing  of  nitrous  oxide,  were 
first  announced.  This  annunciation  excited  con- 
siderable sensation  in  the  scientific  world,  and  at 
once  made  Davy  generally  known  as  a  most  in- 
genious and  philosophic  experimentalist.  He  was, 
in  consequence,  soon  after  its  appearance,  invited 
to  fill  the  chemical  chair  of  the  Royal  Institution, 
then  newly  established. 

When  he  commenced  his  lectures,  he  was 
scarcely  twenty-two  years  of  agej  but  never 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


295 


was  success  in  such  an  undertaking  more  marked 
and  gratifying.  He  soon  saw  his  lecture-rooms 
crowded,  day  after  day,  by  all  that  was  most  dis- 
tinguished in  the  rank  and  intellect  of  the  metrop- 
olis ;  and  his  striking  and  beautiful  elucidations  of 
every  subject  that  came  under  his  review,  riveted 
often  to  breathlessness  the  attention  of  his  splendid 
auditory.  The  year  after  his  appointment  to  this 
situation  he  was  elected  professor  of  chemistry  to 
the  Board  of  Agriculture ;  and  he  greatly  distin- 
guished himself  by  the  lectures  which,  for  ten 
successive  sessions,  he  delivered  in  this  character. 
They  were  published  in  1813,  at  the  request  of 
the  Board. 

In  1806,  he  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  Bakerian 
lecture  before  that  Society,  and  he  performed  the 
same  task  for  several  successive  years.  Many  of 
his  most  brilliant  discoveries  were  announced  in 
these  discourses.  In  1812,  he  received  the  honor 
of  knighthood  from  the  prince  regent,  being  the 
first  person  on  whom  his  royal  highness  conferred 
that  dignity.  Two  days  after,  he  married  a  lady 
of  considerable  fortune.  In  1813,  he  was  elected 
a  corresponding  member  of  the  French  Institute. 
He  was  created  a  baronet  in  1818.  In  1820,  he 
was  chosen  a  foreign  associate  of  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  at  Paris,  on  the  death  of  the 
illustrious  Watt.  He  had  been  for  some  time 
secretary  of  the  Royal  Society ;  and  on  the  death 
of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  in  1820,  he  was,  by  an 
unanimous  vote,  raised  to  the  presidency  of  that 
learned  body,  —  an  office  which  he  held  till  he 
was  obliged  to  retire  on  account  of  ill  health,  in 
1827,  when  his  friend  and  first  patron,  Mr.  Davies 
Gilbert,  was  chosen  to  succeed  him.    Little,  we 


296 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


may  suppose,  did  either  of  the  two  anticipate,  when 
they  first  met,  thirty  years  before,  at  the  gate  of 
Mrs.  Davy,  that  they  would  thus  stand  succes- 
sively, and  in  this  order,  at  the  head  of  the 
most  distinguished  scientific  association  in  Eng- 
land. 

The  first  memoir  by  Davy,  which  was  read  be- 
fore the  Royal  Society,  was  presented  by  him  in 
1801.  It  announced  a  new  theory,  which  is  now 
generally  received,  of  the  galvanic  influence,  or 
the  extraordinary  effect  produced  by  two  metals 
in  contact  with  each  other,  when  applied  to  the 
muscle  even  of  a  dead  animal,  which  the  Italian 
professor,  Galvani,  had  discovered.  It  was  sup- 
posed, both  by  Galvani  and  his  countryman  Volta, 
—  who  also  distinguished  himself  in  the  investiga- 
tion of  this  curious  subject,  —  that  the  effect  in 
question  was  an  electrical  phenomenon,  whence 
galvanism  used  to  be  called  animal  electricity  ;  but 
Davy  showed,  by  many  ingenious  experiments,  that, 
in  order  to  effect  it,  the  metals  in  fact  underwent 
certain  chemical  changes.  Indeed,  he  proved  that 
the  effect  followed  when  only  one  metal  was  em- 
ployed, provided  the  requisite  change  was  by  any 
means  brought  about  on  it,  as,  for  example,  by 
the  interposition,  between  two  plates  of  it,  of  a 
fluid  calculated  to  act  upon  its  surface  in  a  certain 
manner.  In  his  Bakerian  lecture  for  1806,  he 
carried  the  examination  of  this  subject  to  a  much 
greater  length,  and  astonished  the  scientific  world 
by  the  announcement  of  a  multitude  of  the  most 
extraordinary  results,  from  the  application  of  the 
galvanic  energy  to  the  composition  and  decompo- 
sition of  various  chemical  substances.  From  these 
experiments  he  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  that  the 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


297 


power  called  chemical  affinity  was  in  truth  identi- 
cal with  that  of  electricity.  Hence  the  creation 
of  a  new  science,  now  commonly  known  by  the 
name  of  electro-chemistry,  being  that  which  re- 
gards the  supposed  action  of  electricity  in  the 
production  of  chemical  changes.  The  discourse, 
in  which  these  discoveries  were  unfolded,  was 
crowned  by  the  French  Institute  with  their  first 
prize,  by  a  decision  which  reflects  immortal  honor 
upon  that  illustrious  body;  who  thus  forgot  not 
only  all* feelings  of  mutual  jealousy,  but  even  the 
peculiar  and  extraordinary  hostility  produced  by 
the  war  which  then  raged  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, in  their  admiration  of  genius  and  their  zeal 
for  the  interests  of  philosophy. 

In  the  interesting  and  extraordinary  nature  of 
its  announcements,  the  Bakerian  lecture  of  1807 
was  as  splendid  a  production  as  that  of  the  former 
year.  There  are  certain  substances,  as  the  reader 
is  aware,  known  in  chemistry  by  the  name  of 
alkalies,  of  which  potash  and  soda  are  the  principal. 
These  substances  chemists  had,  hitherto  in  vain, 
exhausted  their  ingenuity  and  the  resources  of 
their  art  in  endeavoring  to  decompose.  The  only 
substance  possessing  alkaline  properties,  the  com- 
position of  which  had  been  ascertained,  was 
ammonia,  which  is  a  gas,  and  is  therefore  called  a 
volatile  alkali ;  and  this  having  been  found  to  be 
a  compound  of  certain  proportions  of  hydrogen 
and  nitrogen,  an  opinion  generally  prevailed  that 
hydrogen  would  be  found  to  be  also  a  chief  ingre- 
dient of  the  fixed  alkalies.  Davy  determined,  if 
possible,  to  ascertain  this  point,  and  engaged  in 
the  investigation  with  great  hopes  of  success,  from 
the  surpassing  powers  of  decomposition  which  he 


298  HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


had  found  to  belong  to  his  new  agent,  the  galvanic 
influence.  The  manner  in  which  he  pursued  this 
subject  is  among  the  most  interesting  specimens 
of  scientific  investigation  on  record.  - 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  laws  of  gal- 
vanic decomposition,  which  he  had  previously 
discovered,  was,  that  when  any  substance  was 
subjected  to  this  species  of  action,  its  oxygen  (an 
ingredient  which  nearly  all  substances  contain) 
was  developed  at  what  is  called  the  positive  end 
or  pole  of  the  current  of  electricity,  while,  when- 
ever any  hydrogen  or  inflammable  matter  was 
present,  it  uniformly  appeared  at  the  opposite  or 
negative  pole.  Proceeding  upon  this  principle, 
therefore,  Davy  commenced  his  work  with  a  fixed 
alkali ;  and  at  first  submitted  it,  dissolved  in  water, 
to  the  galvanic  action.  The  result,  however,  was, 
that  the  water  alone  was  decomposed,  nothing 
being  disengaged  by  the  experiment  but  oxygen 
and  hydrogen,  the  ingredients  of  that  fluid,  which 
passed  off  as  usual,  the  former  at  the  positive,  the 
latter  at  the  negative  pole.  In  his  subsequent 
experiments,  therefore,  Davy  proceeded  without 
water,  employing  potash  in  a  state  of  fusion ;  and 
having  guarded  the  process  from  every  other  dis- 
turbing cause  that  presented  itself,  by  a  variety 
of  ingenious  arrangements,  he  had  at  last  the  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  the  oxygen  gas  developed,  as 
before,  at  the  positively  electrified  surface  of  the 
alkali,  while,  at  the  same  time,  on  the  other  side, 
small  globules  of  matter  were  disengaged,  having 
all  the  appearances  of  a  metal.  The  long  agitated 
question  was  now  determined;  the  base  of  the 
fixed  alkalies  was  clearly  metallic.  To  ascertain 
the  qualities  of  the  metallic  residue  which  he  hud 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


299 


thus  obtained  from  the  potash,  was  Davy's  next 
object.  From  its  great  attraction  for  oxygen,  it 
almost  immediately,  when  exposed  to  the  atmos- 
phere, became  an  alkali  again,  by  uniting  with 
that  ingredient ;  and,  at  first,  it  seemed  on  this  ac- 
count hardly  possible  to  obtain  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  it  for  examination.  But  at  last  Davy  thought 
of  pouring  over  it  a  thin  coating  of  the  mineral 
fluid  called  naptha,  which  both  preserved  it  from 
communication  with  the  air,  and,  being  transpar- 
ent, allowed  it  to  be  examined. 

But  there  was  another  course  of  investigation, 
into  which  this  philosopher  entered,  which  resulted 
in  a  practical  discovery  of  high  importance.  This 
was  the  contrivance  of  the  safety-lamp.  In  coal- 
mines, frequent  explosions  had  been  caused  by 
the  fire-damp,  or  inflammable  gas,  which  is  found 
in  many  parts  of  them.  By  a  series  of  experi- 
ments, Davy  found  that  this  dangerous  gas,  which 
was  known  to  be  nothing  more  than  the  hydrogen 
of  the  chemists,  had  its  explosive  tendencies  very 
much  restrained  by  being  mixed  with  a  small 
quantity  of  carbonic  acid  and  nitrogen  (the  ingre- 
dients which  along  with  oxygen  form  atmospheric 
air ;)  and  that,  moreover,  if  it  did  explode,  when 
so  mixed,  the  explosion  would  not  pass  through 
apertures  less  than  one  seventh  of  an  inch  in 
diameter.  Proceeding  therefore  upon  these  as- 
certained facts,  he  contrived  his  safety-lamp.  It 
consists  of  a  small  light  fixed  in  a  cylindrical  ves- 
sel, which  is  everywhere  air-tight  except  in  the 
bottom,  and  which  is  formed  of  fine  wire-gauze, 
and  in  the  upper  part  there  is  a  chimney  for  carry- 
ing off  the  foul  air.  The  air  admitted  through 
he  gauze  suffices  to  keep  up  the  flame,  which  in 


300 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


its  combustion  produces  enough  of  carbonic  acid 
and  nitrogen  to  prevent  the  lire-damp,  when  in- 
flamed within  the  cylinder,  from  communicating  the 
explosion  to  that  which  is  without.  The  heretofore 
destructive  element,  thus  caught  and  detained,  is 
therefore  not  only  rendered  harmless,  but  actually 
itself  helps  to  furnish  the  miner  with  light,  the 
whole  of  the  interior  of  the  cylinder  being  filled 
with  a  steady  green  flame,  arising  from  the  com- 
bustion of  the  hydrogen,  which  has  been  admitted 
in  contact  with  the  heat,  but  cannot  carry  back  the 
inflammation  it  has  received  to  the  general  volume 
without.  Armed  with  this  admirable  protection, 
therefore,  the  miner  advances  without  risk,  and 
with  sufficient  light  to  enable  him  to  work,  into 
recesses  which  formerly  he  would  not  have  dared 
to  enter.  The  safety-lamp  has  already  been  the 
means  of  saving  many  lives,  and  has  enabled  ex- 
tensive mines  or  portions  of  mines  to  be  wrought, 
which,  but  for  its  assistance,  must  have  remained 
unproductive.  The  coal-owners  of  the  northern 
districts,  in  1817,  invited  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  to 
a  public  dinner,  and  presented  him  with  a  service 
of  plate  of  the  value  of  £2,000,  in  testimony  of 
what  they  felt  to  be  the  merit  of  this  inven- 
tion. 

"The  transformations  of  chemistry,"  remarks 
Mr.  John  F.  W.  Herschel,  "by  which  we  are 
enabled  to  convert  the  most  apparently  useless 
materials  into  important  objects  in  the  arts,  are 
opening  up  to  us  every  day  sources  of  wealth  and 
convenience,  of  which  former  ages  had  no  idea, 
and  which  have  been  pure  gifts  of  science  to  man. 
Every  department  of  art  has  felt  their  influence, 
and  new  instances  are  continually  occurring  of  the 


HUMPHREY  DAVY.  301 

unlimited  resources  which  this  wonderful  science 
develops  in  the  most  sterile  parts  of  nature.  Not 
to  mention  the  impulse  which  its  progress  has 
given  to  a  host  of  other  sciences,  what  strange 
and  unexpected  results  has  it  not  brought  to  light 
in  its  application  to  some  of  the  most  common 
objects !  Who,  for  instance,  would  have  conceived 
that  linen  rags  were  capable  of  producing  more 
than  their  own  weight  of  sugar,  by  the  simple 
agency  of  one  of  the  cheapest  and  most  abundant 
acids?  —  that  dry  bones  could  be  a  magazine  of 
nutriment,  capable  of  preservation  for  years,  and 
ready  to  yield  up  their  sustenance  in  the  form  best 
adapted  to  the  support  of  life,  on  the  application  of 
that  powerful  agent,  steam,  which  enters  so  largely 
into  all  our  processes,  or  of  an  acid  at  once  cheap 
and  durable  ?  —  that  saw-dust  is  susceptible  of  con- 
version into  a  substance  bearing  no  remote  analogy 
to  bread ;  and  though  certainly  less  palatable  than 
that  of  flour,  yet  in  no  way  disagreeable,  and  is 
both  wholesome  and  digestible,  as  well  as  highly 
nutritive?  What  economy  in  all  processes  where 
chemical  agents  are  employed,  is  introduced  by  the 
exact  knowledge  of  the  proportions  in  which  natu- 
ral elements  unite,  and  their  mutual  powers  of 
displacing  each  other !  What  perfection  in  all  the 
arts  where  fire  is  employed,  either  in  its  more 
violent  applications  (as,  for  instance,  in  the  smelt- 
ing of  metals  by  the  introduction  of  well-adapted 
fluxes,  whereby  we  obtain  the  whole  product  of 
the  ore  in  its  purest  state),  or  in  its  milder  forms, 
is  in  sugar-refining,  the  whole  modern  practice 
)f  which  depends  on  a  curious  and  delicate  remark 
)f  a  late  eminent  scientific  chemist  on  the  nice  ad- 
justment of  temperature  at  which  the  crystalliza- 
26 


302 


HUMPHREY  DAVY. 


tion  of  syrup  takes  place ;  and  a  thousand  other 
arts,  which  it  would  be  tedious  to  mention." 

We  have  not  space  to  enumerate  many  other 
splendid  discoveries  of  this  great  philosopher.  In 
1827,  his  health  had  become  so  poor,  that  he 
found  it  necessary  to  seek  relaxation  from  his 
engagements,  and  accordingly  resigned  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Royal  Society.  Immediately  after 
this  he  proceeded  to  the  continent.  During  his 
absence  from  England,  he  still  continued  his 
chemical  researches,  the  results  of  which  he  com- 
municated in  several  papers  to  the  Royal  Society. 
He  also,  notwithstanding  his  increasing  weakness 
and  sufferings,  employed  his  leisure  in  literary 
compositions  on  other  subjects,  an  evidence  of 
which  appeared  in  his  "  Salmonia,"  a  treatise  on 
fly-fishing,  which  he  published  in  1828.  This 
little  book  is  full  of  just  and  pleasing  descriptions 
of  some  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and  is  imbued 
with  an  amiable  and  contented  spirit.  His  active 
mind,  indeed,  continued,  as  it  would  seem,  to  exert 
itself  to  the  last,  almost  with  as  unwearied  ardor 
as  ever.  Besides  the  volume  which  we  have  just 
mentioned,  another  work,  entitled  "The  Last 
Days  of  a  Philosopher,"  which  he  also  wrote 
during  this  period,  has  been  given  to  the  world 
since  his  death.  He  died  at  Geneva,  on  the  30th 
of  May,  1829.  He  had  only  arrived  in  that  city 
the  day  before ;  and  having  been  attacked  by  an 
apoplexy  after  he  had  gone  to  bed,  expired  at  an 
early  hour  in  the  morning. 

"No  better  evidence,"  says  his  biographer, 
"  can  be  desired  than  that  which  we  have  in  the 
history  of  Davy,  that  a  long  life  is  not  necessary 
to  enable  an  individual  to  make  extraordinary 


HUMPIIREY  DAVY. 


303 


progress  in  any  intellectual  pursuit  to  which  he 
will  devote  himself  with  all  his  heart  and  strength. 
This  eminent  person  was  indeed  early  in  the  arena 
where  he  won  his  distinction,  and  the  fact,  as  we 
have  already  remarked,  is  a  proof  how  diligently 
he  must  have  exercised  his  mental  faculties  during 
the  few  years  that  elapsed  between  his  boyhood 
and  his  rirst  appearance  before  the  public.  Al- 
though during  this  time  he  had  scarcely  any  one 
to  guide  his  studies,  or  even  to  cheer  him  onward, 
yet,  notwithstanding  that,  he  had  taken  his  place 
among  the  known  chemists  of  the  age,  almost 
before  he  was  twenty-one.  The  whole  of  his  bril- 
liant career  in  that  character,  embracing  so  many 
experiments,  so  many  literary  productions,  and  so 
many  splendid  and  valuable  discoveries,  extended 
only  over  a  space  of  not  quite  thirty  years.  He 
had  not  completed  his  fifty-lirst  year  when  he  died. 
Nor  was  Davy  merely  a  man  of  science.  His 
general  acquirements  were  diversified  and  exten- 
sive. He  was  familiar  with  the  principal  con- 
tinental languages,  and  wrote  his  own  with  an 
eloquence  not  usually  found  in  scientific  works. 
All  his  writings,  indeed,  show  the  scholar  and  the 
lover  of  elegant  literature,  as  well  as  the  ingenious 
and  accomplished  philosopher.  Like  almost  all 
those  who  have  greatly  distinguished  themselves  in 
the  world  of  intellect,  he  selected  his  one  favorite 
path,  and  persevered  in  it  with  great  energy ; 
while  he  nevertheless  revered  wisdom  and  genius 
in  all  their  manifestations." 

Of  the  religious  opinions  and  feelings  of  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  we  know  very  little.  The  fol- 
lowing striking  sentence  is  found  in  one  of  his 
moral  works.    "  I  envy,"  says  he,  "  no  quality  of 


304 


HUMPHREY  DAVT. 


the  mind  or  intellect  in  others ;  not  genius,  power, 
wit,  or  fancy ;  but  if  I  could  choose  what  would 
be  most  delightful,  and  I  believe  most  useful  to 
me,  I  should  prefer  a  firm  religious  belief  to  every 
other  blessing." 


ADAM  CLARKE. 

We  suppose  that  no  one  will  deny  to  Dr. 
Clarke  the  claim  of  great  and  multifarious  learn- 
ing, and  of  most  patient  and  unwearied  industry 
in  whatever  he  undertook.  The  soundness  of 
his  judgment,  the  clearness  of  his  perceptions, 
and  the  strength  of  his  reasoning  powers  are  in 
very  high  estimation.  The  truth  of  some  of  the 
religious  doctrines  which  he  maintained,  may  be 
questioned  in  many  of  the  divisions  of  the  Chris- 
tian church ;  yet  the  high  characteristics  of  ener- 
gy, perseverance,  supreme  devotion  to  one  great 
object,  all  will  cheerfully  unite  in  awarding  to 
him.  He  was  unquestionably  the  most  learned 
man  ever  connected  with  the  Methodist  church. 

Adam  Clarke  was  born  at  Cootinagtug,  about 
thirty  miles  from  the  city  of  Londonderry,  Ire- 
land, in  the  year  1760.  His  father  was  a  member 
of  a  respectable  English  family.  His  mother 
was  of  Scottish  descent.  Reduced  fortunes  were 
the  reasons  of  their  removing  to  Ireland.  His 
parents  were  pious  and  intelligent  people.  As 
soon  as  he  could  well  be  taught  anything,  he  was 
instructed  to  fear  and  love  the  God  and  Father 
of  all,  and  to  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
through  the  only  Mediator. 

The  religious  principles,  thus  early  implanted, 
expanded  and  strengthened  as  he  advanced  in 
years.  His  father  being  diligently  engaged  from 
day  to  day  in  his  occupation  as  a  farmer,  had  not 
26* 


30G 


ADAM  CLARKE. 


perhaps  discerned  in  his  son  any  peculiar  predi- 
lection for  learning.  Had  this  been  the  case,  it 
is  very  probable  that  he  would  not  have  cherished 
it,  but  that  he  would  have  judged  it  most  prudent 
to  turn  the  attention  of  his  son  towards  trade  and 
commerce.  Though  he  was  able  to  have  impart- 
ed to  him  a  sound  and  mature  education,  he  with- 
held the  boon  in  a  great  measure,  partly  from  his 
circumstances  and  prospects  in  life,  and  partly 
because  he  foresaw  that  his  agricultural  cares 
would  too  frequently  engage  his  time  as  well  as 
divide  the  attention  of  his  pupil  to  too  great  a 
degree  to  anticipate  any  early  proficiency  in 
learning. 

Having  designed  his  son  for  trade,  Mr.  Clarke 
placed  him  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Bennett,  an  ex- 
tensive linen-manufacturer,  in  the  neighborhood. 
The  lad  had  either  no  power  or  no  disposition  to 
throw  any  obstacles  in  the  way  of  a  connection 
which  his  father  evidently  desired,  and  to  which, 
perhaps,  he  himself  thought  he  should  be  able  to 
reconcile  himself.  But  whether  he  betrayed  his 
aversion  to  manual  labor,  or  whether  he  dis- 
covered his  strong  desire  for  study,  it  was  soon 
perceived  that  he  was  very  much  dissatisfied. 
Accordingly  a  separation  took  place  between  him 
and  his  master,  alike  honorable  to  all  the  parties 
concerned.  His  love  of  reading,  at  the  age  of 
nine  years,  was  intense.  To  gratify  this  passion, 
he  would  undergo  any  privations  and  submit  to 
any  hardships.  The  pence  he  obtained  for  good 
behavior  and  extra  work,  he  never  expended 
for  toys  and  sweetmeats,  but  carefully  preserved 
them  for  the  purchase  of  books. 

Mi*.  Bennett  continued  till  his  death  a  steady 


ADAM  CLARKE. 


307 


friend  and  correspondent  of  Mr.  Clarke.  About 
this  time,  the  founder  of  Methodism,  the  Rev. 
John  Wesley,  was  active  in  his  inquiries  after 
pious  and  promising  young  men  to  assist  him 
in  the  work  of  the  ministry.  Adam  Clarke  was 
pointed  out  to  him  as  a  youth  of  promise,  by 
an  individual  who  had  become  acquainted  with 
his  talents.  Mr.  Wesley  had  sometime  before 
founded  a  school  at  Kingswood,  near  Bristol,  for 
the  education  of  the  sons  of  preachers.  After  a 
short  correspondence,  young  Clarke  was  sent  to 
this  school.  Unhappily,  the  treatment  which  he 
received  from  the  master  was  harsh  and  violent. 
Some  have  supposed  it  to  have  arisen  out  of  a 
determination  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  to  apply 
himself  to  the  acquisition  of  more  extensive 
knowledge  than  the  system  or  resources  of  that 
seminary  contemplated.  It  was  during  this  try- 
ing period  that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  that  pro- 
found acquaintance  with  the  Hebrew  language,  to 
which  he  ultimately  attained.  At  an  early  age, 
he  took  for  his  motto,  "  through  desire,  a  man, 
having  separated  himself,  seeketh  and  intermed- 
dleth  with  all  wisdom."  Mr.  Wesley  soon  after 
arrived  at  Kingswood,  and  the  pains  and  fears  of 
Mr.  Clarke  were  dispersed.  That  acute  observer 
perceived  and  estimated  the  excellence  of  his 
persecuted  protege,  and  in  a  short  time  adjudged 
him  to  be  worthy  to  undertake  the  labors  of  an 
evangelical  itinerancy.  Mr.  Clarke  entered  on 
his  public  work  in  1782.  Several  circumstances 
combined  to  render  him  a  preacher  of  the  highest 
popularity  among  the  Methodists,  and  of  the 
greatest  usefulness  in  extending  the  influence  and 
exalting  the  character  of  that  denomination. 


308 


ADAM  CLARKE. 


At  the  age  of  twenty-two  years,  he  had  upon 
his  hands  the  study  of  the  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew 
and  French  languages,  but  as  he  was  obliged  to 
travel  several  miles  every  day,  and  preached  on 
an  average  thirty  days  in  every  month,  he  did  not 
make  much  progress.  About  this  time,  he  read 
four  volumes  of  Church  History  while  riding  on 
horseback.  Owing  to  the  injudicious  conduct  of 
an  acquaintance,  Dr.  Clarke  relinquished  his 
studies  for  the  space  of  four  years,  but  was  in- 
duced by  Mr.  John  Wesley  to  resume  them. 
During  eleven  months,  in  the  year  1784,  he 
preached  live  hundred  and  sixty-eight  sermons, 
and  travelled  many  hundreds  of  miles.  This  was 
an  average  of  nearly  two  sermons  every  day. 
He  also,  during  this  time,  made  himself  master 
of  the  science  of  chemistry.  His  attention  was 
first  directed  to  biblical  criticism  by  the  loan,  from 
a  friend,  of  a  Hebrew  folio  Bible,  with  various 
readings,  which  he  carefully  studied.  In  1786,  he 
recommenced  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
and  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Scriptures. 
He  had  no  teacher,  and  his  stock  of  books  was 
small,  yet  he  read  and  collated  the  original  texts 
in  the  Polyglot,  particularly  the  Hebrew,  Samari- 
tan, Chaldee,  Syriac,  Vulgate  and  Septuagint. 

Dr.  Clarke  was  an  example  of  temperance  and 
persevering  industry.  "  Rising  early,  and  late 
taking  rest,  avoiding  all  visits  of  ceremony  and 
journeys  of  mere  pleasure  and  recreation,  re- 
stricting himself  to  the  most  wholesome  diet  and 
temperate  beverage,  not  allowing  unnecessary 
intrusion  on  Ins  time;  —  these  were  among  the 
means  by  which  he  at  once  performed  so  much 
important  duty,  acquired  such  a  store  of  knowl- 


ADAM  CLARKE. 


309 


edge,  and  retained  so  unusual  a  portion  of  sound 
and  vigorous  health."  Dr.  Clarke  applied  him- 
self to  the  study  of  languages  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

In  the  year  1795,  he  made  an  entire  new  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament  from  the  Greek. 
His  principal  work  is  his  Commentary  on  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  He  commenced  this  great 
undertaking  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  and  spent 
forty  years  of  close  and  unremitting  study  upon  it. 
He  literally  translated  every  word,  comparing  the 
whole  with  all  the  ancient  versions  and  the  most 
important  of  the  modem,  and  collated  all  with  the 
various  readings  of  the  most  eminent  biblical 
scholars,  and  illustrated  the  whole  by  quotations 
from  ancient  authors,  Rabbinical,  Greek,  Roman, 
and  Asiatic.  In  this  arduous  labor  he  had  no 
assistant,  nor  even  a  week's  help  from  an  aman- 
uensis ;  on  the  contrary,  he  performed  during  the 
whole  of  this  period,  with  the  utmost  fidelity,  the 
arduous  labors  of  a  Methodist  preacher.  What- 
ever may  be  said  of  its  doctrines,  its  criticisms, 
and  its  interpretations,  no  one  can  deny  that  it 
exhibits  an  uncommon  display  of  ingenuity  and 
industry,  and  a  vast  accumulation  of  learning. 

Dr.  Clarke  died  of  the  Asiatic  cholera,  at  Bays- 
water,  August  25,  1832.  He  left  his  residence 
the  day  previous  to  preach  at  Bayswater,  on  the 
Sabbath.  He  was  attacked  in  the  night,  and  died 
at  eleven  the  next  day,  at  the  age  of  seventy-two. 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


Benjamin  Thompson,  the  distinguished  Couut 
Rumford,  gave  an  early  promise  of  his  future  ele- 
vation, although  it  was  little  heeded  by  those  with 
whom  he  associated.  His  mind  was  constantly 
led  away  from  the  pursuits  which  were  assigned 
to  him,  to  others  more  congenial  to  his  aspirations. 
He  wras  born  at  Woburn,  in  Essex  county,  Mass., 
in  1752,  of  humble  parents,  no  way  distinguished 
from  the  laboring  community  which  constituted 
the  bulk  of  the  population  of  agricultural  villages 
before  the  Revolution.  His  father  died  during 
his  infancy,  and  his  relative  and  guardian  afforded 
him  the  ordinary  advantages  of  a  common  country 
school.  His  tastes  soon  began  to  show  themselves, 
and  the  usual  sports  of  boyhood  were  exchanged 
for  the  use  of  mechanic  tools,  and  drafts  of  rather 
wild  and  impracticable  models  of  perpetual  motion. 
His  zeal  and  perseverance  in  these  fruitless  occu- 
pations drew  forth  the  surprise  and,  for  the  most 
part,  the  condemnation  of  those  around  him.  But 
although  he  did  not  pursue  with  ardor  the  thrifty 
occupations  of  common  industry,  he  never  gave  bis 
time  to  vicious  pursuits  and  the  calls  of  pleasure. 
The  anxiety  of  his  mother  and  friends  was  only 
that  he  would  not  be  able  to  learn  any  craft  by 
which  his  livelihood  would  be  secured. 

At  thirteen  years  of  age,  he  was  placed  as  an 
apprentice  in  charge  of  Mr.  Appleton,  a  merchant 
of  Salem,  in  wrhose  family  there  still  remains  a 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


311 


relic,  the  name  of  "  Benjamin  Thompson,"  neatly 
cut  on  the  frame  of  the  shop-slate.  His  success 
in  this  clerkship  was  not  encouraging;  he  han- 
kered for  the  tools  of  the  workshop  and  musical 
instruments,  of  which  he  had  become  fond.  The 
fault  of  guardians  and  parents  then,  as  now,  was 
to  neglect  the  natural  bent  of  the  youthful  mind, 
and  insist  that  the  occupation  assigned  to  young 
persons  should  be  selected  by  considerations 
which  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  natural  bias. 
Young  Thompson's  apprenticeship  was  of  short 
duration,  and  he  returned  to  live  with  his  mother, 
at  Woburn,  without  having  acquired  a  regular 
employment. 

His  self-reliance  was  his  great  characteristic. 
He  seems  never  to  have  expected  to  avoid  difficul- 
ties, and  of  course  never  sank  in  despondency.  He 
had  now  become  old  enough  to  dwell  with  anxiety 
upon  his  future  course  in  life,  and  although  no 
flattering  opening  presented  itself,  devoted  himself 
to  (lie  acquisition  of  useful  knowledge.  At  about 
seventeen  years  of  age,  he  attended  lectures  on 
natural  philosophy  at  Cambridge,  nothing  deterred 
by  a  walk  of  nine  miles  from  Woburn  to  Cam- 
bridge. His  companion  was  another  self-educated 
individual,  Mr.  (afterwards  Col.)  Loammi  Bald- 
win, of  Woburn,  a  distinguished  engineer.  His 
punctual  attendance  on  these  lectures  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  his  extraordinary  acquirements  in  the 
application  of  philosophical  principles  to  the  com- 
mon wants  of  life. 

Soon  after  this  period,  he  commenced  the  busi- 
ness of  teacher  of  the  town  school  at  Bradford,  in 
the  southern  part  of  Essex  county ;  and  at  the 
age  of  nineteen  we  find  him  engaged  in  the 


312 


COUNT  RUilFORD. 


same  employment,  in  the  town  of  Concord,  N.  H,, 
where  his  fine  personal  appearance,  and  the  ease 
of  manner  which  he  had  acquired  in  his  inter- 
course with  educated  men,  recommended  him  to 
the  favor  of  a  lady  of  large  property,  the  widow 
of  Col.  Rolfe,  of  Concord,  which  lady  he  married 
at  this  early  age. 

He  was  always  of  an  ambitious  turn,  and  in  his 
intercourse  with  the  world  lost  no  opportunities  of 
personal  advancement,  and  by  his  new  position  in 
society  he  was  enabled  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 
public  men,  and  procure  the  appointment  of  major 
of  militia.    But  at  the  period  of  the  commence- 
ment of  the  American  Revolution,  Major  Thomp- 
son was  thought  to  favor  the  royal  cause.  This 
imputation  was  a  manifest  injustice,  as  his  conduct 
at  that  time  and  subsequently  proves.  His  aspiring 
temper  had  led  him  to  form  an  acquaintance  with 
those  who  were  above  his  condition  in  life,  and 
these  persons  were  principally  British  officers,  in 
civil  and  military  situations.    The  popular  feeling 
at  that  time  was  particularly  strong,  and  prejudices 
were  easily  engendered,  and  Major  Thompson's 
protestations  were  unavailing  to  shield  him  from 
popular  odium.    It  is  much  to  the  credit  of  his 
patriotism,  that  this  unmerited  treatment  did  not 
readily  wean  him  from  the  American  side  of 
the  struggle.    He  turned  out  with  those  who  en- 
countered the  British  troops  at  Lexington,  and 
afterwards  went  into  camp  with  the  troops  at 
Cambridge.    He  also  sought  to  clear  himself  from 
suspicion  by  the  action  of  a  court  of  inquiry,  who 
decided  entirely  in  his  favor,  and  pronounced  him 
a  friend  of  liberty. 

At  this  time  he  turned  his  attention,  with  bis 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


313 


usual  ardor,  to  military  studies,  and  tried  Lard  to 
obtain  a  commission  under  Congress  in  a  company 
of  engineers  about  being  raised,  where  his  talents 
and  courage  would,  no  doubt,  have  done  honor  to 
the  appointment.  But  his  efforts  were  unsuc- 
cessful. The  appointment  was  given  to  a  young 
man,  the  son  of  a  distinguished  engineer,  Major 
Gridley,  who  had  served  in  the  old  French  war, 
and  who  was  afterwards  wounded  at  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  where  he  had  the  day  before  skillful- 
ly laid  out  the  fortifications.  At  this  engagement, 
his  son  commanded  the  only  American  artillery, 
in  a  manner  for  which  he  has  been  severely  cen- 
sured. Mr.  Thompson  met  this  disappointment 
in  no  very  placable  spirit,  and  having  lost  his  wife 
by  death,  he  embarked  for  England,  to  better  his 
fortunes.  His  acquaintance  with  the  English  and 
royalist  party  enabled  him  to  be  the  bearer  of 
despatches  to  the  English  government.  He  was 
not  slow  to  avail  himself  of  his  introduction  to 
persons  in  power.  Every  person  bringing  intel- 
ligence from  the  revolted  colonies  was  welcomed, 
and  especially  one  who  united  so  much  intelli- 
gence and  practical  acquaintance  with  the  detail 
of  measures  at  the  theatre  of  affairs,  was  cordially 
received.  His  introduction  to  men  in  power  was 
of  great  service  to  him,  and  he  soon  was  appoint- 
ed to  a  secretaryship  in  the  bureau  of  American 
affairs,  in  the  colonial  department. 

Now  began  his  prosperous  life,  when  he  found 
himself  in  a  situation  which  drew  forth  his  latent 
energy  and  talent.  To  these  he  added  a  most 
persevering  industry  and  entire  confidence  in 
himself.  His  preparations  for  every  undertaking 
were  always  fully  made,  and  he  seized  upon  op- 
27 


314 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


portunity  with  avidity.  His  name  became  known 
as  a  learned  man  and  successful  philosopher.  He 
was  chosen  into  the  Royal  Society,  and  contributed 
largely  to  their  memoirs.  The  studies  of  that  age 
were  of  a  military  character,  and  H$Lr.  Thompson 
was  distinguished  in  that  department.  At  the 
age  of  thirty,  he  was  made  a  colonel  in  the  British 
service.  His  regiment  was  sent  to  this  country 
just  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  Col.  Thomp- 
son gave  evidence  of  his  peculiar  fitness  for 
command,  in  the  discipline  of  his  troops.  A  few 
skirmishes  at  the  south  was  all  the  service  they 
were  called  to  perform,  and  peace  speedily  caused 
their  return  ;  so  that  Col.  Thompson,  although  he 
appeared  at  the  very  first  and  very  last  of  the 
contest,  was  exempt  from  its  material  and  more 
important  struggle.  He  returned  to  England  on 
half  pay,  and  was  knighted  in  1784. 

His  military  ardor  was  yet  uncooled,  and  he 
left  England  to  offer  his  services  to  the  emperor 
of  Austria,  in  his  war  against  the  Turks.  On 
his  way  to  Vienna,  he  accidentally  encountered 
the  future  king  of  Bavaria,  at  a  military  review 
of  his  troops,  at  Manheim.  His  introduction  was 
opportune,  and  the  Due  de  Deuxponts  was  inspired 
with  confidence  in  his  new  acquaintance,  by  his 
conversation  and  fine  personal  appearance.  He 
was  in  want  of  a  person  possessing  the  very  talent 
Col.  Thompson  displayed,  which  caused  his  invi- 
tation to  court,  and  his  appointment  to  offices  of 
trust  and  responsibility. 

His  first  duty  was  to  reform  the  discipline  of 
the  army,  which  he  performed  in  a  bold  and  sat- 
isfactory manner,  so  that  order  was  established, 
economy  promoted,  and  contentment  prevailed. 


COUNT  RUM FORD. 


315 


Without  relaxing  discipline,  he  abolished  useless 
formalities  among  the  military,  and  employed  the 
time  thus  gained,  in  teaching  them  and  their  chil- 
dren the  rudiments  of  common  learning;  and  here 
the  system  of  common  schools,  as  it  prevails  in 
New  England,  triumphed,  as  it  has  often  done. 
Col.  Thompson  owed  much  of  his  success,  to  his 
familiarity  with  the  town  schools  of  his  native  land, 
which  he  had  practically  acquired  by  teaching. 
He  established,  besides  the  elementary  schools 
of  common  learning,  schools  for  employment,  by 
which  the  soldier  became  no  longer  a  drone,  and 
mechanical  automaton,  but  performed  an  amount 
of  labor  on  the  public  works  and  highways,  which 
contributed  somewhat  to  repay  his  support  by  the 
State.  An  instance  of  his  characteristic  ecomomy 
appeared  in  his  appropriating  the  paper  used  to 
teach  writing  in  the  military  schools,  to  the  manu- 
facture of  cartridges  by  the  soldiery. 

Col.  Thompson's  success  with  the  military,  en- 
couraged him  to  extend  his  philanthropy  to  the 
mendicants,  which  overran  the  kingdom  of  Ba- 
varia. They  had  long  been  a  nuisance  which  the 
boldest  reformers  had  given  up  in  despair.  They 
were  so  numerous,  so  bold,  and  so  thoroughly 
lazy,  that  the  scheme  of  making  them  useful 
members  of  society  was  considered  most  chimer- 
ical and  absurd.  They  audaciously  levied  con- 
tributions on  the  public,  and  their  systematized 
exactions  were  the  terror  of  the  bakers,  butchers, 
brewers  and  shopkeepers  of  Munich  and  other 
cities,  who  usually  compounded  with  them  for  a 
stipulated  sum,  or  sort  of  black  mail.  The  power 
of  these  mendicants  was  so  formidable,  that  four 
regiments  of  cavalry  were  cantoned  in  different 


316 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


parts  of  Bavaria,  to  overawe  and  control  them,  if 
necessary.  All  the  arrangements  were  systemat- 
ically appointed.  A  large  building  was  provided, 
containing  the  necessary  appliances  for  in-door 
labor  of  every  mechanical  kind,  and  as  machinery 
had  not  superseded  manual  labor  in  so  great  a 
degree  as  at  present,  abundant  employment  for 
all,  both  old  and  young,  was  found  in  the  various 
workshops,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  articles  of 
wood,  iron,  leather,  wool  and  cotton. 

It  might  well  require  the  energies  of  a  man  of 
genius  to  convert  men,  women  and  children,  born 
beggars,  into  industrious  artisans,  and  not  only  to 
abate  a  nuisance,  but  confer  a  positive  benefit  upon 
the  depressed  and  outcast  authors  of  it.  Yet  such 
was  the  miracle  wrought  by  the  energy,  the 
philanthropy  and  the  perseverance  of  Col.  Thomp- 
son. His  institution  became  celebrated  as  a 
model  throughout  Europe.  He  secured  to  him- 
self a  reward,  in  the  grateful  acknowledgements 
of  those  who  were  benefited  by  his  labors,  which 
he  highly  appreciated,  and  which  rarely  falls  to  the 
lot  of  philanthropists.  This  was  the  result  of  being 
governed  in  his  labors  by  the  law  of  kindness. 
Firmness,  promptitude,  and  energy,  characterized 
his  movements,  but  harshness  never.  The  sturdy 
beggars  were  arrested  in  the  streets,  by  the  civil 
officers  ;  they  were  informed  that  begging  was  pro- 
hibited in  Bavaria,  and  that  employment,  food  and 
clothing  would  be  furnished  to  all  who  needed  them, 
and  that  those  who  were  unable  to  work  should 
be  sent  to  the  hospital.  The  well  disposed  eagerly 
embraced  the  opportunity  offered,  and  the  refrac- 
tory saw  no  chance  of  resistance  or  escape.  In  the 
end,  all  were  satisfied.  Two  principles,  practically 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


517 


applied,  contributed  mainly  to  his  success.  In  the 
first  place,  he  averred  that  since  goodness  and  hap- 
piness were  acknowledged  to  be  inseparable,  it 
was  best  to  begin  by  making  the  poor  happy,  and 
then  expect  them  to  become  virtuous;  whereas  the 
common  fault  was,  to  endeavor  to  instil  lessons  of 
virtue  first,  and  expect  the  happiness  to  follow. 
In  the  second  place,  he  roused  their  pride  and 
encouraged  their  self-respect,  by  proclaiming  that 
alms-giving  was  abolished,  and  caused  it  to  be 
inscribed  in  large  letters  over  the  door  of  his 
institution,  No  Alms  received  here.  The 
pauperism  of  Bavaria  soon  lost  its  worst  features, 
and  although  in  all  countries  there  must  be  pro- 
vision for  the  poor,  and  the  poor  are  always  with 
us,  appealing  to  our  feelings  of  humanity  and 
sympathy,  yet  by  judicious  arrangements,  like 
those  of  Thompson,  the  debasing  characteristics 
of  systematic  pauperism  can  be  avoided.  Col. 
Thompson  speaks  with  enthusiasm  of  his  success 
in  accomplishing  his  plans.  He  describes  with 
animation  his  visit  to  the  workhouse  at  Munich, 
after  an  absence  of  fifteen  months,  and  speaks  of 
the  fete  he  gave  to  nearly  two  thousand  of  the 
inmates,  in  the  public  gardens,  of  their  solicitude 
and  prayers  for  him  while  dangerously  sick,  and 
asks  if  any  earthly  reward  can  be  greater  than 
the  satisfaction  he  received. 

But  substantial  and  pecuniary  recompense  was 
not  wanting.  So  great  were  the  benefits  confer- 
red on  the  state,  and  so  various  were  the  improve- 
ments he  caused  to  be  followed  out,  that  the 
sovereign  of  Bavaria  conferred  upon  him  many 
appropriate  honors.  He  appointed  him  his  aid- 
de-camp,  chamberlain,  member  of  council,  and 
27* 


318 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


lieutenant  general  of  bis  armies.  He  had  been 
knighted  in  England,  and  as  the  laws  of  the 
Bavarian  Electorate  did  not  permit  his  receiving 
the  same  honor  there,  others  were  procured  for 
him  in  Poland  and  Italy.  During  the  temporary 
occupancy,  by  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  of  the  place 
of  Vicar  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  his  patron 
created  him  a  count  by  the  name  of  Rumford,  in 
honor  of  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  whose  original 
name  was  Rumford. 

He  was  now  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  and  was 
much  employed  by  his  writings,  in  diffusing  the 
knowledge  of  his  plans  and  his  success  throughout 
the  world.  Much  of  his  philosophical  writing, 
which  was  highly  popular,  and  free  from  techni- 
calities, was  on  the  subject  of  heat,  and  laborious 
and  expensive  experiments  were  instituted,  to 
ascertain  the  best  mode  by  which  a  saving  of  fuel 
could  be  effected  by  the  poor,  in  cooking  their 
food  and  warming  their  houses.  By  his  own 
statement,  it  appears  that  he  was  enabled,  at  his 
establishment,  to  prepare  the  food  of  1000  persons 
for  12£  cents'  worth  of  fuel,  rating  wood  at  $6,00 
a  cord.  The  ovens,  which  yet  go  by  his  name,  are 
still  in  constant  use,  after  a  trial  of  fifty  years. 
But  the  most  important  blessing  he  conferred  on 
the  poor,  as  an  improvement  in  their  food,  was 
teaching  them  the  value  of  the  potato.  Before 
Count  Rumford's  philanthropic  efforts,  the  potato 
was  almost  an  unknown  plant,  and  regarded  as  a 
sort  of  luxury,  but  in  his  plan  for  improving  the 
condition  of  the  military,  gardens  were  estab- 
lished at  the  barracks,  which  the  soldiers  owned 
as  their  private  property,  but  were  compelled  to 
keep  in  order,  while  the  produce  they  raised  went 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


310 


to  improve  the  diet  of  their  families.  Count 
Rumford,  by  great  exertions,  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing the  culture  of  this  valuable  root,  and  its 
use  at  length  became  general  among  all  classes. 
Indian  corn  was  another  cheap  article  of  food  to 
which  he  directed  the  popular  attention  by  his 
writings,  which  were  enthusiastic  as  well  as  intel- 
ligible. The  following  extract  from  his  essay 
upon  food,  will  show  the  minuteness  with  which 
he  entered  into  detail,  and  exhibits  the  curious  in- 
stance of  a  great  philosopher  giving  to  the  world 
a  description  of  the  best  method  of  making  hasty- 
pudding.  "  In  regard  to  the  most  advantageous 
mode  of  using  Indian  corn  as  food,  I  would  strong- 
ly recommend  a  dish  made  of  it,  that  is  in  the 
highest  estimation  throughout  America,  and  which 
is  really  very  good  and  very  nourishing.  This  is 
called  hasty-pudding,  and  is  made  in  the  following 
manner :  A  quantity  of  water,  proportioned  to  the 
quantity  of  pudding  to  be  made,  is  put  over  the 
fire,  in  an  open  iron  pot  or  kettle,  and  a  proper 
quantity  of  salt,  for  seasoning ;  the  salt  being  pre- 
viously dissolved  in  the  water,  Indian  meal  is 
stirred  into  it,  little  by  little,  with  a  wooden  spoon 
with  a  long  handle,  while  the  water  goes  on  to  be 
heated  and  made  to  boil,  great  care  being  taken  to 
put  in  the  meal  in  very  small  quantities,  and  by 
sifting  it  slowly  through  the  fingers  of  the  left 
hand,  and  stirring  the  water  about  very  briskly  at 
the  same  time  with  the  wooden  spoon  in  the  right 
hand,  to  mix  the  meal  with  the  water  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  prevent  lumps  being  formed.  The 
meal  should  be  added  so  slowly,  that,  when  the 
water  is  brought  to  boil,  the  mass  should  not  be 
thicker  than  water-gruel,  and  half  an  hour  more^ 


320 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


at  least,  should  be  employed  to  add  the  additional 
quantity  of  meal  necessary  for  bringing  the  pud- 
ding to  be  of  the  proper  consistency,  during  which 
time  it  should  be  stirred  about  continually,  and  kept 
constantly  boiling.  The  method  of  determining 
when  the  pudding  has  acquired  a  proper  consist- 
ency, is  this  :  —  the  wooden  spoon  used  for  stirring 
it  being  placed  upright  in  the  kettle,  if  it  falls 
down,  more  meal  must  be  added ;  but  if  the  pud- 
ding is  sufficiently  thick  and  adhesive  to  support 
the  spoon  in  a  vertical  position,  it  is  declared  to 
be  proof,  and  no  more  meal  is  added."  He  then 
describes  the  various  additions  with  which  it  may 
be  eaten,  and  cautions  his  European  readers  not 
to  be  prejudiced  against  it  until  they  have  tried  it, 
"  for,"  says  he,  "  the  universal  fondness  of  Ameri- 
cans for  it,  proves  that  it  must  have  some  merit ; 
for,  in  a  country  which  produces  all  the  delicacies 
of  the  table  in  the  greatest  abundance,  it  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  a  whole  nation  should  have  a 
taste  so  depraved  as  to  give  a  decided  preference 
to  any  particular  species  of  food  which  has  not 
something  to  recommend  it."  His  description 
of  the  mode  of  eating  it  smacks  strongly  of  his 
early  engineering  studies.  "  The  manner  in  which 
hasty-pudding  is  eaten,  with  butter  and  sugar 
or  molasses,  in  America,  is  as  follows :  the  hasty- 
pudding  being  spread  out  equally  on  a  plate,  while 
hot,  an  excavation  is  made  in  the  middle  with  a 
spoon,  into  which  excavation  a  piece  of  butter  as 
large  as  a  nutmeg  is  put,  and  upon  it  a  spoonful  of 
brown  sugar,  or,  more  commonly,  molasses.  The 
butter  being  soon  melted  by  the  heat  of  the  pud- 
ding, mixes  with  the  sugar  or  molasses,  and  forms 
a  sauce,  which  being  confined  in  the  excavation 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


321 


made  for  it,  occupies  the  middle  of  the  plate. 
The  pudding  is  then  eaten  with  a  spoon ;  each 
spoonful  of  it  being  dipped  into  the  sauce  before 
it  is  conveyed  to  the  mouth ;  care  being  taken  in 
eating  it  to  begin  on  the  outside,  or  near  the  brim 
of  the  plate,  and  to  approach  the  centre  by  regular 
advances,  in  order  not  to  demolish  too  soon  the 
excavation  which  forms  the  reservoir  for  the 
sauce." 

Among  all  the  honors  which  Count  Rumford 
received,  he  valued  none  more  highly  than  that 
of  minister  to  the  Court  of  London.  There  was 
the  beginning  of  his  fame,  there  the  first  place  at 
which  his  talents  had  been  appreciated  and  re- 
warded. Unfortunately,  he  was  doomed  to  be 
disappointed.  After  his  appointment  by  the  Ba- 
varian government  to  this  post,  he  was  informed 
that  the  rule  of  the  English  Court  did  not  permit 
the  office  of  ambassador  near  them,  to  be  filled  by 
a  British  subject,  and  that  there  could  be  no 
exception  made  to  this  rule,  even  to  favor  the 
claims  of  so  acceptable  a  man  as  Count  Rum- 
ford.  This  information  met  him  in  London,  but 
did  not  cause  him  to  quit  the  country.  He 
remained  among  his  old  associates  for  some  years, 
and  his  position  afforded  him  a  more  convenient 
opportunity  to  disseminate  his  inventions  and  im- 
provements. He  was  one  of  the  leading  men  in 
founding  the  present  Royal  Institution  of  Great 
Britain,  the  purpose  of  which  shows  the  character 
of  his  mind  in  bringing  the  achievements  of  science 
to  the  practical  test  of  utility.  This  institution  was 
chartered  to  diffuse  the  knowledge  and  introduc- 
tion of  useful  inventions  ;  and  to  teach  the  appli- 
cation of  science  to  the  arts,  by  means  of  public 
lectures. 


322 


COUNT  RIMFORD. 


At  this  period  of  his  life  his  thoughts  appear  to 
have  reverted  to  his  native  land,  for  the  weal  of 
whose  institutions  he  had  always  shown  an  inter- 
est. He  was  repeatedly  invited  to  revisit  it,  hy 
individuals  and  government ;  but  he  never  found 
himself  at  liberty  to  aceept  their  invitation.  He 
invested  live  thousand  dollars  in  the  American 
funds  to  establish  a  premium  to  be  awarded  by 
the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  of 
Massachusetts,  to  the  author  of  the  most  "impor- 
tant discovery  or  useful  improvement,  which  shall 
be  made  and  published  by  printing,  or  in  any  way 
made  known  to  the  public,  in  any  part  of  the 
continent  of  America,  or  in  any  of  the  American 
Islands,  during  the  two  preceding  years,  on  heat, 
and  on  light ;  the  preference  always  being  given 
to  such  discoveries  as  shall,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Academy,  tend  most  to  promote  the  good  of  man- 
kind." A  like  sum  was  also  presented  to  the 
Royal  Society  of  Great  Britain  to  be  used  by 
them  for  the  same  purpose,  in  order  that  he 
might  contribute  to  the  "  advancement  of  a  science 
which  had  long  employed  his  attention,  and  which 
appeared  to  him  to  be  of  the  highest  importance  to 
mankind."  The  sum  invested  in  this  country  has 
never  been  employed  to  pay  premiums,  except 
in  a  single  instance,  and  the  fund  has  been  con- 
stantly accumulating  till  it  has  quadrupled  its 
original  amount.  The  legislature  of  Massachu- 
setts have  empowered  the  American  Academy  to 
divert,  in  some  degree,  the  interest  of  the  capital 
from  its  original  destination,  and  apply  it  to  make 
additions  to  their  library  of  works  on  the  subjects 
of  heat  and  light. 

Count  Rumford's  ascendency  at  the  Bavarian 


COUNT  RtJMFORD. 


323 


Court,  had  no  doubt  given  him  some  ideas  of  self- 
consequence,  which  did  not  accord  with  the  freer 
atmosphere  of  Great  Britain,  where  he  was 
obliged  to  admit  the  co-operation,  if  not  the 
equality,  of  associates  in  the  same  fields  of 
science.  From  this  or  some  other  cause,  he  was 
involved  in  difficulties  with  the  managers  of  the 
Royal  Institution,  whom  he  probably  found  less 
subservient  than  the  savans  of  his  former  place 
of  residence.  Considerations  of  this  sort  proba- 
bly, led  him  to  the  choice  of  another  place  of 
retirement,  and  he  became  a  resident  of  France. 
His  industry  and  researches  still  marked  his 
character,  although  his  domestic  relations  became 
less  agreeable.  He  became  united  in  marriage 
with  the  widow  of  the  distinguished  chemist, 
Lavoisier,  and  after  discovering  how  little  their 
dispositions  were  suited  to  promote  each  other's 
happiness,  they  separated  by  mutual  agreement. 

Count  Rumford's  death  took  place  in  August, 
1814,  at  the  age  of  62,  and  was  the  occasion  of 
an  eulogy  by  the  celebrated  Cuvier,  before  the 
French  Institute,  to  which  body  Count  Rumford 
belonged.  The  university  at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
was  most  gratefully  remembered  in  his  will,  by 
which  he  bequeathed  $1000  annually  and  the 
reversion  of  his  estate,  to  found  the  present  Rum- 
ford  professorship,  the  object  of  which  is,  to  teach 
the  application  of  science  to  the  useful  arts,  and 
which  has  been  filled  with  distinguished  ability. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  in  his  researches 
how  completely  Count  Rumford  relinquished  the 
warlike  to  cultivate  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  man- 
kind. His  first  experiments  were  instituted  to 
calculate  the  force  of  projectiles,  and  the  explo- 


324 


COUNT  RUMFORD. 


siveness  of  gunpowder;  the  later  ones  to  cure 
smoking  chimneys  and  determine  the  comparative 
warmth  of  different  textures  used  for  clothing,  and 
to  prove  the  superiority  of  broad-rimmed  wheels. 
His  whole  soul  seemed  to  enter  into  any  scheme 
for  administering  to  the  wants  of  mankind,  and  his 
writings  are  particularly  happy  in  the  plain  and 
graphic  mode  of  explanation.  His  was  not  a 
mawkish  sympathy,  but  an  effective  effort  at 
amelioration.  His  success  in  life  was  a  proud 
exhibition  of  New  England  character,  and  forci- 
bly illustrates  the  value  of  self-dependence  and 
perseverance.  A  faltering  and  indolent  man 
would  never  have  made  use  of  his  advantages, 
great  though  they  were ;  and  a  lover  of  ease, 
contented  with  a  moderate  share  of  renown, 
would  never  have  accomplished  the  high  aims  of 
Count  Rumford.  On  the  whole  no  man  has 
better  applied  the  maxim  of  Cicero,  "lama  man 
and  have  an  interest  in  every  thing  human." 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 

The  profound  study  of  mathematics,  although 
regarded  by  the  majority  as  dry  and  repulsive, 
has  always  excited  great  enthusiasm  in  its  sincere 
votaries.  And  well  it  may;  since  its  processes 
are  so  beautiful  in  their  exactness,  its  results  so 
certain,  and,  when  applied  in  practice,  often  so 
astonishing.  By  the  severity  of  its  method,  the 
mind  is  abstracted  from  every  other  object ;  the 
passions  are  held  in  abeyance ;  the  attention  is 
riveted  to  the  demonstration ;  and  the  intellect, 
in  some  of  its  most  independent  operations,  is 
surprised  and  delighted  with  unexpected  discov- 
eries. When  Syracuse  was  taken  by  the  Romans 
(B.  C.  312),  not  even  the  din  of  arms,  nor  the 
confusion  of  a  city  given  up  to  pillage,  could 
divert  Archimedes  from  the  problem  upon  which 
he  was  intent.  The  philosopher  was  slain  in 
the  midst  of  his  labors,  with  his  rude  diagrams 
before  him.  We  can  hardly  cease  to  wonder,  that 
from  the  smallest  data  the  widest  results  may  be 
calculated.  The  accuracy  of  the  maps  and  charts 
of  "ru^es  depends,  perhaps,  upon  fixing  the  po- 
sition of  a  single  point.  A  beautiful  illustration 
of  the  exactness  of  mathematical  calculations,  is 


3^7 


8 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


seen  in  the  efforts  to  determine  the  difference  be- 
tween the  polar  and  equatorial  diameters  of  the 
earth.  It  has  been  said,  that  with  a  base  line  of 
less  titan  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  length  (i.  e.  the 
excess  of  the  polar  over  the  equatorial  pendulum), 
we  can  determine,  within  the  fraction  of  a  mile, 
the  difference  between  the  polar  and  equatorial 
radius  of  the  earth.* 

Sciences  the  most  abstruse  are  sometimes  found 
to  be  most  really  practical.  The  poor  old  man, 
whose  failing  eyes  are  made  young  again  by  his 
spectacles,  little  dreams,  perhaps,  of  the  various 
knowledge  which  was  necessary  in  order  to  invent 
and  construct  the  glasses.  The  captain  of  the 
vessel,  who  learns  his  latitude  and  longitude  by 
an  observation  of  the  stars,  may  not  remember 
what  an  acquaintance  with  the  laws  and  motions 
of  those  distant  bodies  was  necessary,  before  the 
rules  and  tables  requisite  for  the  observations 
could  be  formed.  The  reproach  of  neglecting  the 
sciences  and  the  arts,  cast  upon  this  country,  for  a 
time  with  justice,  can  now  hardly  be  made  good. 
Men  have  lived  among  us,  as  distinguished  for 
learning  as  for  practical  skill.  Twenty-four  years 
ago,  a  writer  in  one  of  our  ablest  Reviews  lamented 
that  "  while  Great  Britain  could  boast  of  more 
than  thirty  public  and  private  observatories  of 
considerable  note,  we  had  not  in  the  whole  United 
States  one  that  deserved  the  name."  That  want 
is  now,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  supplied  by 
public  and  private  munificence.  Astronomical  ob- 
servatories have  been  established  at  many  of  our 
colleges,  in  several  of  our  large  cities,  and  at  the 


*  Mr.  Pickerings  Eulogy  on  Dr.  Bowditch,  p.  68. 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


9 


seat  of  government,  in  Washington.  The  liberal 
contributions  for  the  purchase  of  libraries  and 
philosophical  apparatus  in  some  of  our  colleges, 
and  the  encouragement  given  to  some  of  our 
painters  and  sculptors,  show  that  the  sympathies 
of  considerable  portions  of  the  community  are  not 
expended  upon  works  of  the  lowest  practical  util- 
ity alone,  nor  upon  the  mere  acquisition  of  wealth; 
or  rather,  that  the  enlargement  of  the  sphere  of 
our  knowledge,  and  the  cultivation  of  a  pure  and 
refined  taste,  are  themselves  considered  of  the 
greatest  utility,  and  as  constituting  our  most  cer- 
tain wealth. 

He  who  has  added  to  the  purely  scientific  repu- 
tation of  his  country,  deserves  to  be  gratefully 
remembered.  The  subject  of  the  following  sketch 
did  more,  perhaps,  in  this  respect,  than  any  Amer- 
ican of  his  time ;  and,  in  addition  to  his  great 
scientific  attainments,  was  remarkable  for  his 
practical  skill.  It  does  not  always  follow,  that 
profound  acquisitions  in  science  are  accompanied 
by  a  sound  judgment  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of 
life.  It  wrould  sometimes  seem  as  if  the  habit  of 
dealing  habitually  and  almost  solely  with  fixed 
quantities,  injured  one's  power  of  judging  saga- 
ciously concerning  creatures  so  variable  and  fickle 
as  men.  La  Place  himself,  when  placed  by  Bo- 
naparte in  stations  of  high  political  responsibility, 
was  found  incompetent  to  the  discharge  of  his  du- 
ties. Dr.  Bowditch's  practical  ability  was  equal  to 
his  knowledge ;  and  his  profound  mathematical  and 
astronomical  knowledge  was  so  applied,  as  to  be- 
come subservient  to  the  most  common  necessities 
of  society.  His  science,  however  removed,  it  might 
at  first  seem,  from  the  ordinary  business  of  men, 


10 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


really  enabled  him  to  furnish  them  with  the  means 
of  conducting  that  business  most  safely  and  prof- 
itably. By  his  personal  attention  and  efforts,  he 
wisely  and  prosperously  directed  an  institution 
which  held  under  its  control  millions  of  dollars, 
entrusted  to  it  by  those  whose  circumstances  would 
not  allow  them  to  manage  their  own  property. 
At  the  same  time,  by  his  mind,  he  was  navigating 
tens  of  thousands  of  ships,  all  over  the  world, 
freighted  with  untold  wealth,  and  with  lives  still 
more  precious. 

Nathaniel  Bowditch,  the  fourth  of  seven 
children,  was  born  in  Salem,  Mass.,  March  26th, 
1773.  His  ancestors  for  several  generations  were 
shipmasters ;  but  his  father,  having  met  with  mis- 
fortunes in  business  at  the  commencement  of  the 
revolutionary  war,  was  so  far  disheartened  as  to 
give  up  his  profession,  and  adopt  the  trade  of  a 
cooper.  At  the  age  of  ten,  young  Bowditch  lost 
his  mother,  to  whose  instruction  he  always  felt 
under  great  obligations.  He  always  spoke  of  her 
with  the  greatest  affection.  She  early  taught  him 
to  love  truth ;  and  never,  on  any  account,  to  tell  a 
lie.  She  also  inculcated  upon  him  a  reverence 
for  things  sacred.  Before  the  death  of  his  mother, 
he  had  attended  school  for  a  short  time,  and  his 
predilections  for  the  favorite  studies  of  his  mature 
years  began  early  to  show  themselves.  It  is 
rtated,  that  having  with  some  difficulty  obtained 
permission  from  the  schoolmaster  to  study  arith- 
metic, a  difficult  sum  was  given  him,  apparently 
for  the  purpose  of  rebuking  his  too  eager  desire. 
He  took  it  to  his  seat,  nowise  discouraged,  and 
soon,  having  conquered  the  difficulty,  brought  it 
up  with  a  shining  face  to  the  master.  Instead, 


NATHANIEL   BOWDITCH.  11 

however,  of  the  approbation  he  expected,  he  was 
accused  of  endeavoring  to  deceive,  by  pretending 
to  have  done  what  another  had  done  for  him. 
Nor  was  he  credited  when  he  asserted  that  he 
did  it  himself ;  and  the  impatient  teacher  would 
have  proceeded  to  punish  him,  if  an  older  brother 
had  not  interfered  and  fortified  the  assertion  of 
Nathaniel  by  his  own  testimony.  This  circum- 
stance —  especially  his  being  charged  with  false- 
hood —  was  one  of  those  which  Dr.  Bowditch 
could  never  forget. 

The  benefit  of  the  school,  whatever  it  may 
have  been,  he  was  soon  compelled  to  forego,  on 
account  of  poverty ;  and,  at  a  little  more  than  ten 
years  of  age,  he  was  bound  as  an  apprentice  to 
Messrs.  Ropes  &  Hodges,  who  were  ship  chan- 
dlers. While  with  them,  he  evinced  more  de- 
cidedly a  taste  for  mathematics ;  and,  indeed, 
devoted  his  leisure  moments  with  great  earnest- 
ness to  reading  and  study.  He  kept  his  slate 
and  pencil  by  his  side  in  the  shop,  and,  when  not 
engaged  in  serving  customers,  was  busy  in  his 
favorite  pursuit.  One  visiter  prophesied  "  that  if 
he  kept  on  ciphering  so,  he  would,  without  doubt, 
in  time,  become  an  almanac  maker.'"  Another, 
having  once  entered  the  shop  when  Nathaniel  was 
engaged  in  his  common  arithmetical  labor,  while 
his  fellow-apprentice  was  asleep  behind  the  coun- 
ter, smiled  and  said,  "Hogarth's  Apprentices." 
Frequently,  after  the  store  was  closed  at  night,  he 
remained  until  nine  or  ten  o'clock,  occupied  with 
his  books.  His  holidays  were  usually  spent  in 
the  same  manner.  In  the  house  of  his  master,  he 
had  a  room  in  the  garret,  which  he  used  during 
the  summer  as  a  study ;  while  in  the  winter,  he 


12 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


made  a  corner  by  the  kitchen  fire  serve  the  same 
purpose.  He  rose  ,very  early  in  the  morning,  — 
a  habit  which  he  retained  through  life ;  and  he 
often  declared  that  those  early  hours  gave  him, 
substantially,  his  knowledge  of  mathematics. 
When  he  was  fourteen,  he  made  an  almanac, 
which  still  exists  in  manuscript,  and  is  considered 
among  the  most  interesting  volumes  of  his  library. 
At  this  period  of  his  life,  also,  he  gained  his  first 
knowledge  of  algebra.  His  brother  William  re- 
turned one  day  from  school,  with  the  tidings  that 
the  master  had  a  new  method  of  ciphering,  by 
means  of  letters.  Nathaniel  was  puzzled  and 
extremely  interested  by  this  announcement,  and 
could  not  rest  till  his  brother  had  borrowed  the 
book  for  him.  It  is  said,  that  he  did  not  sleep 
the  night  after  he  had  obtained  it. 

Although  such  a  diligent  student  of  mathemat- 
ics, he  did  not  confine  his  attention  to  them.  It 
was  about  this  time  that  he  read  through  Cham- 
bers's Cyclopaedia,  in  two  large  folio  volumes. 
There  was  also  in  Salem  a  very  good  library. 
By  a  singular  series  of  events,  the  books  of  Dr. 
Kirwan,  a  learned  Irishman,  were  transferred  to 
America,  —  the  owner  not  consenting  thereto, 
and,  indeed,  not  being  consulted  on  the  subject. 
They  were  captured  by  a  privateer,  in  the  Irish 
Channel,  brought  to  Beverly,  and  being  bought  on 
reasonable  terms,  by  persons  at  Salem,  formed 
the  foundation  of  what  afterwards  became  the 
Salem  Athenaeum.  At  a  subsequent  day,  com- 
pensation was  offered  to  Dr.  Kirwan  for  his  loss; 
but  he  generously  declined  to  take  it.  To  this 
library  young  Bowditch  gained  access,  and  bor- 
rowed from  it  many  volumes  which  were  of  the 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


13 


greatest  consequence  to  him.  Among  them  were 
the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London, 
from  which  he  copied  a  large  number  of  the  most 
important  mathematical  papers.  Scientific  works, 
also,  which  his  limited  means  would  not  allow  him 
to  purchase,  he  obtained  in  the  same  laborious 
way;  and  these  products  of  his  diligence  and 
learning,  still  exist,  in  more  than  twenty  folio  and 
quarto  volumes.  We  doubt  whether  there  was 
ever  a  more  earnest  devotion  to  a  branch  of  sci- 
ence frequently  repulsive  to  the  young  on  account 
of  the  constant  and  patient  attention  which  it  re- 
quires. Two  of  the  volumes  contain,  according 
to  the  title-page  of  one  of  them,  "A  Complete 
Collection  of  all  the  Mathematical  Papers  in  the 
Philosophical  Transactions ;  Extracts  from  vari- 
ous Encyclopaedias,  from  the  Memoirs  of  the  Paris 
Academy ;  a  Complete  Copy  of  Emerson's  Me- 
chanics ;  a  Copy  of  Hamilton's  Conies ;  Extracts 
from  Gravesande's  and  Martyn's  Philosophical 
Treatise,  from  Bernouilli,  &c.  &c." 

When  his  employers,  Messrs.  Ropes  &  Hodges, 
retired  from  business,  young  Bowditch  entered  the 
store  of  Mr.  S.  C.  Ward.  The  same  habits  of 
study  went  with  him.  He  began  to  learn  Latin, 
without  an  instructor,  in  order  to  read  Newton's 
Principia.  This  book  he  finally  mastered,  and, 
it  is  said,  translated  into  English,  while  with  Mr. 
Ward.  No  complete  translation  is  now  among 
his  papers ;  but  portions  of  this  great  work,  ren- 
dered into  English,  are  in  the  manuscript  book 
before  spoken  of.  It  may  be,  therefore,  that  the 
above  remark  of  one  of  his  early  acquaintances 
is  not  entirely  correct. 

As  he  learned  Latin  in  order  to  read  one  pro- 
_V£U— -UL   2-^^-^ 


14 


NATHANIEL  BUWDITCH. 


found  mathematical  treatise,  so  he  learned  French 
in  order  to  read  another.  By  the  strong  advice 
of  his  teacher,  although  against  his  own  first  in- 
clinations, he  learned  the  pronunciation,  as  well  as 
the  forms  and  construction ;  and  it  was  not  long 
before  the  value  of  this  part  of  the  language,  which 
he  had  intended  to  omit,  was  made  most  evident. 
In  one  of  his  first  voyages  to  a  French  port,  he 
happened  to  be  the  only  one  on  board  who  could 
act  as  an  interpreter.  He  was  impressed  by  this 
circumstance  with  the  belief,  that  no  knowledge 
can  come  amiss  to  a  man.  However  unnecessary 
or  unprofitable  it  may  seem  at  the  hour  of  acqui- 
sition, there  will  some  time  or  other  be  a  use  for  it. 
We  will  mention  here  another  incident  illustrating 
the  same  fact,  although  it  occurred  at  a  later  period 
of  his  life.  In  one  of  his  voyages  to  Spain  and 
Portugal,  he  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  Spanish. 
After  he  had  ended  his  seafaring  life,  he  was  applied 
to  by  an  old  sea  captain  to  translate  an  important 
paper  which  he  had  received.  It  was  in  Spanish, 
and  no  one  else  in  Salem  was  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted with  the  language.  Mr.  Bowditch  very 
gladly  made  the  translation ;  and  this  small  assist- 
ance, thus  opportunely  given,  was  one  cause, 
through  the  influence  of  the  captain,  of  the  subse- 
quent election  of  Mr.  Bowditch  to  the  Presidency 
of  the  Essex  Fire  and  Marine  Insurance  Com- 
pany. 

Soon  after  entering  the  employment  of  Mr. 
Ward,  his  love  of  science  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Reed,  at  that  time  an  apothe- 
cary, in  whose  shop,  as  an  assistant,  was  one  of 
Mr.  Bowditch's  schoolmates  and  friends.  With 
this  schoolmate,  he  used  occasionally  to  spend  his 


1 


NATHANIEL  BOTTDITCH. 


15 


evenings,  —  studying  the  scientific  books  which  he 
found  there.* 

There  is  much  truth  in  the  old  adage,  "  Where 
there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way."  If  the  mind  be 
firmly  determined  upon  a  course,  not  absolutely 
extravagant,  the  difficulties  in  the  path  will  be 
likely  to  vanish  before  a  vigorous  resolution  and 
constant  energy.  Men  are  seldom  unlucky  but 
by  their  own  fault.f  Those  who  accomplish  any 
thing  great  in  the  world  must  generally  depend 
upon  themselves,  and  not  upon  external  circum- 
stances. 

"  The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings." 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  never  accustomed  to  think  that 
the  difficulties  he  encountered  in  early  life  really 
retarded  his  progress.  Necessity  was  a  stern 
master,  but,  he  thought,  the  best.    He  was  taught 


*  It  is  mentioned  by  one  of  the  eulogists  of  Dr.  Bowditch, 
as  an  interesting  fact,  that  the  same  shop  was  the  place  re- 
sorted to  by  Count  Rumford  (then  Benjamin  Thomson, 
and  a  clerk  in  John  Appleton's  store),  to  make  his  experi- 
ments on  gunpowder.  —  See  note  to  Judge  White's  Eulogy 
on  Mr.  Bowditch. 

t  Dr.  Bowditch  "  always  was  of  opinion,  that  continued 
ill-luck  indicated  incapacity.  On  one  occasion,  when  he 
had  refused  to  underwrite  upon  a  vessel  commanded  by 
Mr.  A.  because  '  he  was  unlucky,'  the  captain  called  upon 
him  to  complain  of  his  imputing  to  him  as  a  fault  what  was 
but  a  misfortune ;  and,  after  trying  for  some  time  to  evade 
a  direct  reply,  Dr.  Bowditch  at  last  said,  '  If.  you  do  not 
know  that  when  you  got  your  vessel  on  shore  on  Cape  Cod, 
in  a  moonlight  night,  with  a  fair  wind,  you  forfeited  your 
reputation  as  an  intelligent  and  careful  shipmaster,  I  must 
now  tell  you  so  ;  and  this  is  what  i  mean  ey  being  un- 
lucky.'"—  Mem.  prefixed  to  vol.  4  of  Translat.  of  Mec. 
Cel.  p.  84. 


16 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


by  it  to  depend  upon  himself,  while  yet  he  de- 
spised no  assistance  which  he  could  derive  from 
others.  In  overcoming  obstacles,  he  acquired 
an  elasticity  of  spirits,  which  enabled  him,  as  much 
as  any  thing  could,  to  succeed  in  still  greater 
undertakings.  "  The  successful  accomplishment 
of  the  arduous  task  of  translating  the  '  Principia,'  " 
says  Mr.  Reed,  "  probably  induced  him  to  com- 
mence the  translation  of  '  La  Place.'  "  The  vigor 
and  diligence  with  which  he  applied  himself  to 
scientific  pursuits  gained  him  the  friendship  and 
assistance  of  those  who  were  both  willing  and  able 
to  help  him.  Among  these,  besides  Mr.  Reed,  were 
Drs.  Bentley  and  Prince.  The  Philosophical 
Library  was  kept  at  the  house  of  the  latter  of 
these  gentlemen,  who  received  the  youthful  stu- 
dent at  all  times  with  the  greatest  kindness,  and 
rendered  him  all  the  assistance  in  his  power. 

In  1794,  Mr.  Bowditch,  whose  reputation  for 
knowledge  and  fidelity  was  thoroughly  established, 
was  employed,  in  company  with  Mr.  John  Gibaut, 
to  make  a  thorough  survey  of  the  town  of  Salem. 
This  task  was  performed  very  satisfactorily,  and 
with  it  may  be  considered  as  ending  the  first  epoch 
of  his  life.  He  had  now  arrived  at  the  verge  of 
manhood,  with  greater  mathematical  attainments, 
probably,  than  any  one  of  his  age  in  the  state, 
with  a  character  unsullied,  enjoying  the  entire  con- 
fidence of  his  employers,  and  with  good  purposes 
and  resolutions  for  the  future. 

In  the  year  1795,  he  engaged  to  sail  with  his 
friend  Capt.  Gibaut  on  a  voyage  to  the  East 
Indies.  Before  the  vessel  sailed,  Capt.  Gibaut 
relinquished  the  command,  and  his  place  was 
taken  by  Capt.  Prince.    This  made  no  difference 


33 f 


NATHANIEL    BOWDITCH.  17 

with  Mr.  Bowditch,  who  sailed  as  clerk.  They 
went  to  the  Isle  of  Bourbon,  where  they  remained 
five  months,  and  returned  to  Salem  after  exactly 
a  year's  absence.  His  second,  third,  and  fourth 
voyages  were  made  with  the  same  captain.  Dur- 
ing these  voyages  he  employed  his  leisure  time, 
which  was  considerable,  in  mathematical  studies, 
or  in  learning  such  languages  as  he  thought  would 
be  of  value  to  him,  or  in  profitable  reading.  He 
thus  perfected  himself  in  French,  and  acquired  a 
good  knowledge  of  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Portu- 
guese. It  may  as  well  be  mentioned  here,  that 
his  method  of  learning  a  new  language  was  gene- 
rally to  obtain  a  New  Testament  in  the  language, 
and,  with  the  aid  of  a  dictionary,  to  commence 
immediately  the  work  of  translation.  At  the  age 
of  forty-five,  he  learned  the  German,  for  the  sake  of 
reading  certain  mathematical  works.  His  library, 
at  his  death,  contained  the  New  Testament  in  more 
than  twenty-five  languages,  and  the  dictionaries 
of  a  still  larger  number. 

During  his  long  voyages  he  was  not  only  desir- 
ous of  learning,  but  very  willing  to  teach.  He 
diffused  anions;  the  sailors  an  ea^er  desire  for 
nautical  information.  As  a  natural  consequence, 
it  is  stated,  that  a  large  number  of  those  who 
sailed  with  him  became  afterwards  masters  or 
chief  mates  of  vessels.  To  many  ship  owners, 
it  was  the  best  recommendation  of  a  seaman,  that 
he  had  been  a  voyage  with  Mr.  Bowditch.  In 
one  ship  in  which  he  went  to  the  East  Indies,  it  is 
said  that  every  sailor  on  board  could  wrork  a  lunar 
observation.  On  one  occasion,  Capt.  Prince  says, 
the  supercargo  asked  him  to  go  forward,  and  see 
what  the  sailors  were  talking  about.    u  They  went 

Y^fc7-*h  

m 


2(o 

18  NATHANIEL  BOTVDITCH. 

forward  accordingly,  and  the  captain  was  surprised 
to  find  the  sailors,  instead  of  spinning  their  long 
yarns,  earnestly  engaged  with  book,  slate,  and 
pencil,  and  discussing  the  high  matter  of  tangents 
and  secants,  altitudes,  dip,  and  refraction.  Two 
of  them  in  particular  were  zealously  disputing; 
one  of  them  calling  out  to  the  other,  '  Well,  Jack, 
what  have  you  got  ? '  '  I've  got  the  sine,'  was  the 
answer.  '  But  that  aint  right,'  said  the  other  ;  '  i" 
say  it 's  the  cosine.' "  *  The  ship  became  thus  a 
school  of  learning,  and  every  sailor  felt  himself 
elevated  by  belonging  to  it.  To  Mr.  Bowditch  it 
was  a  pleasure  and  a  recreation  thus  to  teach 
those  willing  to  learn.  He  always  felt  that  he 
was  in  this  way  laying  the  best  foundation  for 
their  future  success  in  their  perilous  profession. 
On  the  arrival  of  the  ship  at  Manilla,  a  Scotch- 
man named  Murray,  expressed  his  surprise,  that 
the  Americans,  with  the  slight  knowledge  of  navi- 
gation which  he  supposed  them  to  possess,  should 
undertake  so  long  and  dangerous  a  voyage,  work- 
ing their  way  to  the  island,  by  dead  reckoning,  in 
face  of  the  north-east  monsoon.  Capt.  Prince 
told  him  in  reply,  that  he  had  twelve  men  on 
board,  each  of  whom  was  as  well  acquainted  with 
working  lunar  observations,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, as  Sir  Isaac  NeAvton  himself.  A  broker 
who  was  present  said  to  Murray,  "  If  you  knew  as 
much  as  I  do  about  that  ship,  you  would  not  talk 
quite  so  glib."  "  And  what  do  you  know  ?  "  said 
Murray.  "  I  know,"  returned  the  broker,  "  that 
on  board  that  ship  there  is  more  knowledge  of 


*  Rev.  Mr.  Young's  Discourse. 


NATHANIEL    BOWDITCH.  10 

navigation  than  there  ever  was  in  all  the  ships 
that  ever  came  into  Manilla  bay."  * 

During  the  same  voyage,  while  they  were  at 
Madeira,  Mr.  Bowditch  had  been  called  upon  to 
show  his  mathematical  knowledge.  A  wager  was 
laid  between  a  gentleman  in  the  port  and  the  cap- 
tain of  the  ship,  that  the  young  mathematician 
could  not  do  a  certain  sum.  The  sum  (so  called) 
was  this  :  To  dig  a  ditch  round  an  acre  of  land,  of 
a  given  shape,  —  how  deep  and  how  wide  must 


*  The  Rev.  Mr.  Young  has  translated  an  anecdote  from 
the  Correspondance  Astronomique  of  Baron  Zach,  a  very  dis- 
tinguished European  astronomer,  which  is  so  interesting 
that  we  think  every  reader  will  be  gratified  to  see  it.  "  The 
Baron  is  relating  the  sensation  caused  at  Genoa  by  the 
arrival  there,  in  1817,  of  that  splendid  packet,  the  Cleopatra's 
Barge,  owned  by  George  Crowninshield,  Esq.,  of  Salem. 
He  says  that  he  went  on  board  with  all  the  world,  "  and 
it  happened,"  to  use  his  own  words,  "  that,  on  inquiring 
after  my  friends  and  correspondents  at  Philadelphia  and 
Boston,  I  mentioned,  among  others,  the  name  of  Mr.  Bow- 
ditch.  '  He  is  a  friend  of  our  family  and  our  neighbor  at 
Salem,'  replied  the  captain,  —  a  smart,  little,  old  man ; '  and 
that  young  man  whom  you  see  there,  my  son,  was  his  pupil ; 
in  fact,  it  is  he,  and  not  myself,  who  navigates  the  ship. 
Question  him  a  little,  and  see  if  he  has  learnt  any  thing.' 
Our  dialogue  was  as  follows :  '  You  have  had  an  excellent 
teacher  of  navigation,  young  man ;  and  you  could  not  well 
help  being  a  good  scholar.  In  making  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar,  what  was  the  error  in  your  reckoning  ? '  The 
young  man  replied,  4  Six  miles.'  '  You  must  then  have 
got  your  longitude  very  accurately '•  how  did  you  get  it?' 
'  Fust  by  our  chronometers,  and  afterwards  by  lunar  dis- 
tances.' '  "What !  do  you  know  how  to  take  and  calculate 
the  longitude  by  lunar  distances?'  The  young  captain 
seemed  somewhat  nettled  at  my  question,  and  answered  me 
with  a  scornful  smile,  — '  /  know  how  to  calculate  the  lon- 
gitude !  why,  our  cook  can  do  that ! '  '  Your  cook! '  Here 
the  owner  of  the  ship  and  the  old  captain  assured  me  that 


20 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


it  be,  to  raise  the  acre  of  land  one  foot  ?  The 
problem  was  solved  in  a  very  few  minutes. 

Mr.  Bowditeh's  life  on  shipboard  was  as  metho- 
dical and  as  diligent  as  on  shore.  "  His  practice," 
says  a  companion  during  several  voyages,  "  was 
to  rise  at  a  very  early  hour  in  the  morning,  and 
pursue  his  studies  till  breakfast;  immediately 
after  which,  he  walked  rapidly  for  about  half  an 
hour,  and  then  went  below  to  his  studies  till  half 
past  eleven  o'clock,  when  he  returned  and  walked 


the  cook  on  board  could  calculate  the  longitude  very  well, 
that  he  had  a  taste  and  passion  for  it,  and  did  it  every  day. 
1  There  he  is,'  said  the  young  man,  pointing  with  his  finger 
to  a  negro  at  the  stern  of  the  ship,  with  a  white  apron  before 
him,  and  holding  a  chicken  in  one  hand,  and  a  butcher 
knife  in  the  other.  '  Come  forward.  Jack,'  said  the  captain 
to  him  ;  '  the  gentleman  is  surprised  that  you  can  calculate 
the  longitude,  —  answer  his  questions.'  I  asked  him, '  What 
method  do  you  use  to  calculate  the  longitude  by  lunar  dis- 
tances?' His  answer  was, 'It's  all  one  to  me;  I  use  the 
methods  of  Maskelyne,  Lyons,  Witchel,  and  Bowditch ;  but, 
upon  the  whole,  I  prefer  Dun  thorn  e's,  —  I  am  more  used 
to  it,  and  can  work  it  quicker.'  I  could  not  express  my 
surprise  at  hearing  this  black  face  talk  in  this  way,  with  his 
bloody  chicken  and  knife  in  his  hand.  1  Go,'  said  Mr. 
Crowninshield  to  him,  'lay  down  your  chicken,  bring  your 
books  and  your  journal,  and  show  the  gentleman  your  cal- 
culations.' The  cook  soon  returned  with  his  books  under 
his  arm.  He  had  Bowditeh's  Practical  Navigator,  The 
Requisite  Tables,  Hutton's  Tables  of  Logarithms,  and 
the  Nautical  Almanac.  I  saw  all  this  negro's  calculation 
of  the  latitude,  the  longitude,  and  the  true  time,  which  he 
had  worked  out  on  the  passage.  He  answered  all  my  ques- 
tions with  wonderful  accuracy,  not  in  the  Latin  of  the 
caboose,  but  in  good  set  terms  of  navigation.  This  cook 
had  been  round  the  world,  a  cabin  boy,  with  Capt.  Cook  on 
his  last  voyage,  and  was  well  acquainted  with  the  particulars 
of  his  assassination  at  Owhyhce,  on  the  14th  of  Feb.  1779." 
Bee.  Mr.  Ycninrfs  Discourse,  p.  28. 


33  Q 


NATHANIEL    BOWDITCH.  21 

till  the  hour  at  which  he  commenced  his  meridian 
observations.  Then  came  dinner;  after  which,  he 
was  engaged  in  his  studies  till  five  o'clock ;  then 
he  walked  till  tea  time ;  and,  after  tea,  was  at  his 
studies  till  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  From  this 
hour  till  half  past  ten  o'clock,  he  appeared  to  have 
banished  all  thoughts  of  study ;  and,  while  walk- 
ing, he  would  converse  in  the  most  lively  manner, 
giving  us  useful  information  intermixed  with  amus- 
ing anecdotes  and  hearty  laughs,  making  the  time 
delightful  to  the  officers  who  walked  with  him, 
and  who  had  to  quicken  their  pace  to  accompany 
him.  Whenever  the  heavenly  bodies  were  in 
distance  to  get  the  longitude,  night  or  day,  he  was 
sure  to  make  his  observation  once,  and  frequently 
twice,  in  every  twenty-four  hours ;  always  prefer- 
ring to  make  them  by  the  moon  and  stars,  on  account 
of  his  eyes.  He  was  often  seen  on  deck  at  other 
times,  walking  rapidly,  and  apparently  in  deep 
thought;  and  it  was  well  understood  by  all  on 
board,  that  he  was  not  to  be  disturbed,  as  we  sup- 
posed he  was  solving  some  difficult  problem  ;  and 
when  he  darted  below,  the  conclusion  was,  that 
he  had  got  the  idea.  If  he  were  in  the  fore  part 
of  the  ship  when  the  idea  came  to  him,  he  would 
actually  run  to  the  cabin,  and  his  countenance 
would  give  the  expression  that  he  had  found  a 
prize."  * 

From  this  account  it  appears  that,  without 
neglecting  the  immediate  duties  of  his  calling,  his 
strong  tastes  and  affections  were  towards  science. 
He  was  thirsting  for  knowledge.  He  did  not  pro- 
fess to  be  much  acquainted  with  what  is  usually 


*  Judge  "White's  Eulogy. 


3ko 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


called  seamanship,  although  his  knowledge  and 
skill,  under  every  emergency,  showed  themselves 
equal  to  the  greatest  task  imposed  upon  them. 
During  the  last  voyage  in  which  he  went  as  cap- 
tain, he  determined  to  leave  the  greater  part  of 
the  duties  usually  expected  of  commanders,  to  the 
officers  under  him,  and  made  an  express  agree- 
ment with  them  for  this  purpose.  He  was  thus 
enabled  to  secure  a  much  larger  portion  of  time 
for  his  cherished  studies  than  would  otherwise 
have  been  possible. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the  results 
of  those  studies.  The  book  on  Navigation  once 
in  general  use  among  sailors  was  the  work  of 
John  Hamilton  Moore,  —  a  work,  says  Pick- 
ering, made  up  partly  from  Robertson's  Elements 
of  Navigation,  and  from  the  well-known  Requisite 
Tables  of  Dr.  Maskelyne,  formerly  Astronomer 
Royal  in  the  Observatory  at  Greenwich.  During 
his  first  voyage,  Mr.  Bowditch  had  discovered  in  it 
many  errors,  some  of  which  were  of  a  very  dan- 
gerous nature.  One  of  these  consisted  in  mark- 
ing the  year  1800  as  a  leap  year,  which  affected 
the  numbers  so  as  to  make  a  difference  of  twenty- 
three  miles  in  the  reckoning.  This  mistake  was 
the  cause  of  the  loss  of  several  vessels,  and  the 
imminent  danger  of  many  more.  One  edition  of 
this  work  had  already  been  published  in  America, 
and  another  was  in  preparation,  when  the  pub- 
lisher, Mr.  Blunt,  of  Newburyport,  heard  that 
Mr.  Bowditch  had  made  important  corrections, 
which  he  would  be  willing  to  communicate.  He 
accordingly  applied  to  the  young  navigator,  and 
received  from  him  assistance  which  prevented  the 
loss  of  the  whole  edition.    In  accordance  with  the 


NATHANIEL  BOWD1TCII. 


J»  


request  of  the  publisher,  Mr.  Bowditch  devoted 
himself,  during  his  third  voyage,  to  the  severe 
task  of  carefully  examining  all  the  tables  of  the 
work.  In  order  to  test  their  accuracy,  he  actually 
went  through  all  the  calculations  necessary  to  an 
independent  knowledge  of  what  he  was  revising. 
In  this  wearisome  process,  "no  less  than  eight 
thousand  errors  were  discovered  and  corrected  in 
the  work  of  Moore,  and  above  two  thousand  in 
the  Requisite  Tables."  Of  the  last-mentioned 
errors,  Mr.  Bowditch  remarks,  that  "although  they 
would  not  seriously  affect  the  result  of  any  nau- 
tical calculation,  yet  since  most  of  the  tables  are 
useful  on  other  occasions,  where  great  accuracy  is 
required,  it  is  not  useless  to  have  corrected  so 
many  small  errors." 

In  the  course  of  his  labors  he  found  the  task 
so  arduous  that  it  seemed  to  him,  on  the  whole, 
better  to  make  a  new  work  than  to  improve  the 
old.  As  the  result  of  this  determination,  Mr. 
Bowditch  published,  in  1802,  the  first  edition  of 
his  "  Practical  Navigator."  Thus,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-nine,  had  he  prepared  a  volume  which  has 
been  of  incalculable  service  to  the  interests  of 
navigation.  It  has  never  been  superseded  by  its 
rivals,  and  is  said  to  be  extensively  used  in  the 
British  and  French  navies.  In  the  subsequent 
editions,  of  which  eight  were  published,  the  author 
endeavored  to  make  the  work  as  complete  and 
useful  as  possible.  The  greatest  care  was  used 
in  the  correction  and  prevention  of  mistakes ;  and 
by  the  last  edition  (that  of  1837),  "the  body  of 
the  tables  was  increased  from  thirty-three  to 
fifty-six." 

The  work,  when  first  published  in  America, 

/£?  /V  i<f 


24 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


was  immediately  republished  in  England,  under 
the  editorship  of  Thomas  Kirby.  It  was  soon 
attacked  by  a  British  writer  (Dr.  Mackay,  who 
had  himself  published  a  work  on  navigation),  on 
the  score  of  its  many  inaccuracies.  Dr.  Bowditch 
replied  to  this  charge,  in  the  next  edition  of  his 
work,  that  not  one  of  those  many  inaccuracies 
was  to  be  found  in  the  American  tables;  thus 
leaving  as  the  only  inference  to  be  drawn,  that 
the  errors  were  to  be  charged  upon  the  English 
editor  or  the  English  printer.  As  a  farther  vin- 
dication, however,  although  none  was  necessary, 
he  went  on  to  say,  that  "  It  is  so  difficult  to  obtain 
perfect  accuracy  in  a  table  depending  solely  on 
observations,  that  no  one  ever  published  was  per- 
haps entirely  free  from  error.  As  a  proof  of  this 
assertion,  we  may  refer  to  the  table  published  in 
London,  in  1802,  by  order  of  the  Commissioners 
of  Longitude,  in  the  third  edition  of  the  Requisite 
Tables,  which  table  is  esteemed  as  accurate  as  any 
published ;  for  in  it  the  latitude  of  Sandy  Hook 
is  nearly  four  degrees  too  much,  and  that  of  Bar- 
buda nearly  fifteen  miles  too  much  ;  the  last  error 

being  common  to  almost  all  books  and  charts  

If  farther  proof  of  the  justness  of  the  remark, 
that  errors  exist  in  all  tables  of  latitudes  and  lon- 
gitudes, were  wanting,  it  might  be  obtained  by 
inspecting  the  table  published  at  London,  in  1804, 
in  The  Complete  Navigator,  by  Dr.  Mackay,  in 
which  are  many  similar  errors ;  three  of  which 
only  will  be  mentioned,  viz.  —  Cape  Ann  Lights 
are  laid  down  eleven  miles  too  far  to  the  north- 
ward, and  are  placed  several  miles  to  the  westward 
of  Salem,  instead  of  the  eastward;  Barbuda  is 
placed  fifteen  miles  too  far  to  the  northward ;  and 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


25 


Atwood's  Keys  nearly  a  hundred  miles  too  far 
south :  so  that  the  remark  made  by  Dr.  Mackay 
in  the  preface  to  his  work,  '  that  the  case  of  the 
seaman  who  has  to  trust  to  such  tables  is  truly 
lamentable,'  might,  with  equal  justice,  apply  to 
his  own  table."  * 

Although  the  Practical  Navigator  gained  for 
its  author  such  wide-spread  reputation,  and  was 
so  eminently  useful,  he  did  not  rest  his  scientific 
fame  upon  it.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  he 
received  from  his  publisher  the  Mecanique  Celeste, 
as  part  of  the  payment  for  this  work  on  navigation. 
A  pleasant  anecdote  from  the  memoir  of  his  life, 
prefixed  to  the  fourth  volume  of  the  translation  of 
the  great  work  of  La  Place,  may  well  conclude 
what  we  have  to  say  upon  his  first  distinguished 
effort  at  authorship.  Two  young  men  came  into 
the  shop  of  his  bookseller  to  purchase  a  copy  of 
the  Navigator.  Upon  being  shown  one  bearing  on 
its  title-page  the  number  of  the  edition,  and  pur- 
porting to  have  been  revised  and  corrected  by  the 
author,  one  said  to  the  other,  '  That  is  all  a  mere 
cheat ;  the  old  fellow  must  have  been  dead  years 
ago ! '  They  were  astonished  and  perhaps  a  little  em- 
barrassed at  being  introduced  to  an  active,  sprightly 
gentleman,  in  full  health  and  good  spirits,  as  the 
author  of  this  work,  which  they  had  known  from 
their  earliest  entrance  upon  a  sailor's  life." 

Such  being  the  intrinsic  value  and  the  wide 
utility  of  the  work  of  Mr.  Bowditch,  it  was  a  fitting 
tribute  to  his  memory,  that,  at  the  news  of  his 
death,  the  flags  were  hoisted  at  half-mast  in  many 
of  our  cities,  and  by  American  vessels,  as  well  as 


*  Pickering's  Eulogy,  note  C. 


3h U 

26  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 

b)r  many  English  and  Russian,  in  Cronstadt;  and 
that  a  badge  of  mourning  was  adopted  by  the 
pupils  of  the  naval  school  of  the  United  States. 

With  his  fourth  voyage,  Mr.  Bowditch  ended 
his  life  as  a  seaman.  He  had  become  known  as 
an  uncommon  mathematical  scholar,  and  was  at- 
tracting the  notice  of  men,  whose  friendship  he 
greatly  prized.  Among  these  was  Chief  Justice 
Parsons,  who  was  himself  distinguished  for  at- 
tainments in  the  higher  branches  of  mathematics, 
as  well  as  for  a  profound  acquaintance  with  the 
science  of  law.  In  1 709,  he  was  chosen  a  member 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  last  voyage  in  1802,  while 
his  ship  was  wind  bound  at  Boston,  he  attended 
the  commencement  at  Harvard  University,  and 
was  surprised  and  delighted  to  hear  his  own  name 
pronounced  at  the  close  of  the  exercises  as  one  of 
those  upon  whom  was  conferred  the  honorary  de- 
gree of  Master  of  Arts,  —  an  honor  whicli  he  had 
fairly  won  by  unaided  efforts.  It  was  the  first  of 
the  acts  of  that  distinguished  University  publicly 
recognizing  his  merits.  She  afterwards  gave  him 
more  substantial  tokens  of  esteem ;  but  he  ever 
looked  back  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  this 
earliest  and  entirely  unexpected  proof  of  the  regard 
in  which  he  was  held. 

On  the  25th  of  March,  1790,  Mr.  Bowditch 
married  Elizabeth  Boardman.  Soon  after  he 
sailed  on  his  third  voyage,  and  before  he  returned, 
his  wife  was  no  more.  She  died  at  the  age  of 
eighteen. 

In  1800,  he  was  again  married  to  his  cousin, 
Mary  Ingersoll,  —  the  honored  wife  who  lived 
with  him  more  than  thirty-three  years,  always 


NATHANIEL  B0WD1TCH. 


27 


encouraging  him  in  his  studies,  and  willing  to  make 
any  sacrifices  for  his  prosperity  and  fame.  To 
her  precious  memory  he  subsequently  dedicated 
the  great  translation  and  commentary,  by  which 
his  name  will  be  handed  down  to  the  distant  gene- 
rations of  scholars. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  his  seafaring  life,  Mr. 
Bowditch,  as  has  been  said  before,  was  chosen 
President  of  the  Essex  Fire  and  Marine  Insurance 
Company,  in  which  office  he  remained  nearly 
twenty  years.  His  skill  in  the  management  of 
its  concerns  during  this  long  period,  which  included 
some  difficult  crises  in  commercial  affairs,  is  suf- 
ficiently shown  by  its  uniform  prosperity.  The 
stockholders  received  for  their  investments  an 
average  annual  dividend  of  ten  or  twelve  per  cent., 
and  the  institution,  when  he  left  it  to  remove  to 
Boston,  had  a  large  surplus  of  profits  on  hand. 
For  this  situation,  his  affability,  regular  habits, 
sagacity,  and  strict  integrity,  no  less  than  his 
great  scientific  attainments,  remarkably  fitted  him. 
He  was  continually  in  contact  with  men  of  great 
variety  of  character,  and  elicited  from  all  an  in- 
voluntary respect  for  his  learning  and  skill.  His 
love  of  justice  and  truth  was  among  the  strongest 
of  his  characteristics,  and  he  had  occasion  some- 
times to  exhibit  them  in  connection  with  the  busi- 
ness of  his  office.  No  man  could  expect  any  favor 
from  him  merely  because  he  was  rich,  nor  hope  to 
control  the  affairs  of  the  institution  so  as  to  benefit 
himself  to  the  injury  of  a  poor  man.  A  person 
of  great  wealth  once  endeavored  to  force  him  to 
do  an  act  which  he  thought  would  be  injurious  and 
unjust  to  another  of  smaller  property,  and,  on  his 
objecting,  made  mention  of  his  own  riches,  and 


28 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


intimated  that  lie  would  have  his  way.  "  No,  sir, 
you  wont,"  said  Mr.  Bowditch ;  "  I  stand  here  in 
this  place  to  see  justice  done,  and,  as  long  as  I  am 
here,  I  will  defend  the  weak." 

During  his  residence  in  Salem,  he  was  con- 
stantly interested  in  the  public  institutions  of  the 
city.  Among  these  was  the  Salem  Athenaeum, 
which  rose  from  the  combination  of  the  Social 
Library  and  the  Philosophical  Library.  By  the 
union,  effected  in  part  by  his  efforts,  the  value  and 
usefulness  of  both  were  greatly  increased. 

Another,  and  the  most  peculiar,  institution  of 
the  town,  is  the  Salem  East  India  Marine  Society, 
whose  museum  is  one  of  the  chief  attractions  to 
strangers.  This  Society  is  composed  of  those-who 
have  sailed  beyond  Cape  Horn  or  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  as  captain  or  supercargo.  The  mu- 
seum consists,  mainly,  of  articles  of  curiosity  col- 
lected from  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  world, 
arranged  with  great  taste  and  skill,  in  a  large  hall 
erected  for  the  purpose.  The  collection  is  unique, 
and,  as  Mr.  Bowditch  says  in  his  will,  affords  "  a 
proof  alike  of  the  enterprise,  taste,  and  liberality, 
of  such  of  the  citizens  of  Salem  as  have  followed 
a  seafaring  life."  Besides  collecting  curiosities, 
the  Society  aims  to  obtain  and  diffuse  nautical  in- 
formation. This  important  object  is  said  to  have 
been  suggested  by  Mr.  Bowditch  himself.  "  A 
blank  book  is  furnished  to  each  member,  uniformly 
prepared  for  recording  facts  and  observations  dur- 
ing each  voyage  ;  and,  upon  the  return  of  the 
vessel,  it  is  deposited  with  the  Society.  It  is  then 
examined  by  a  committee,  who  select  and  record 
in  other  volumes,  having  a  convenient  index  for 
reference,  all  that  they  consider  important ;  and 


3- 


NATHANIEL    BOWDITCH.  20 

the  result  is  a  mass  of  nautical  information,  such 
as,  probably,  exists  nowhere  else  in  the  world, 
and  which  Dr.  Bowditch  found  of  great  service  in 
preparing  for  the  press  the  various  editions  of  the 
Practical  Navigator"  Of  this  Society  he  was,  at 
different  times,  Inspector  of  its  Journals,  Secretary, 
and  President ;  and  his  full-length  portrait  now 
hangs  in  its  great  hall. 

Although  these  duties  seemed  to  occupy  his 
time,  yet  he  found  leisure  to  pursue  his  favorite 
studies.  In  company  with  two  others,  soon  after 
his  return  from  his  last  voyage,  he  made  a  very 
accurate  and  complete  survey  of  the  harbors  of 
Salem,  Marblehead,  Beverly,  and  Manchester. 
In  the  chart  constructed  from  the  results  of  this 
survey,  the  old  landmarks,  known  only  to  the 
pilots,  were  laid  down  with  such  accuracy  as  to 
excite  among  them  general  surprise,  and  almost  a 
fear  for  their  occupation. 

His  manner  of  life  while  in  Salem  was  very 
methodical,  and  varied  little  from  one  day  to 
another.  He  rose  at  six,  and  walked  a  mile  or 
two,  either  before  breakfast  or  immediately  after  ; 
at  nine  wrent  to  his  office,  where  he  remained  till 
one.  Then  he  walked  again  before  dinner ;  and 
after  dinner  frequently  took  a  short  nap,  and  again 
went  to  his  office  until  tea-time.  From  tea-time 
till  nine  in  the  evening,  he  was  at  his  duties,  and 
amidst  business.  Notwithstanding  this  regularity 
of  public  employment,  he  found  time  for  the 
various  duties  of  friendship,  as  well  as  the  pursuits 
of  science.  In  1818  he  became  trustee  for  manag- 
ing an  estate  of  nearly  half  a  million  of  dollars. 
He  found  time  to  instruct  several  young  ladies 
in  French,  and  others  in  Italian.    Widows  and 


30 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


orphans  came  to  him  for  sympathy  and  help, 
and  were  sure  to  receive  it.  He  was  indeed  an 
illustration  of  the  remark,  that  if  you  need  any 
thing  done  you  must  apply  to  a  busy  man  ;  an  idle 
person  seldom  can  find  time  to  do  any  thing  but 
be  idle.  Almost  every  one  has  found  something 
like  this  in  his  own  experience. 

It  is  time  that  we  indicate  some  results  of  his 
scientific  pursuits  while  at  Salem.  "  Before  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning,"  he  used  to  say,  "  I  learned 
all  my  mathematics."  Although  this  may  be  true, 
yet  then,  as  ever  afterwards  in  life,  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  carry  some  of  his  books  with  him  to  his 
office,  and,  if  a  moment  of  leisure  occurred,  would 
relieve  himself  from  more  irksome  duties  by  study* 
ing  them.  During  his  residence  at  Salem,  he  con- 
tributed twenty-three  papers  to  the  several  volumes 
of  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences.  Many  of  these  were  purely 
mathematical;  most  of  them,  astronomical.  Among 
them  is  an  interesting  paper  on  the  height,  direc- 
tion, velocity,  and  magnitude  of  the  meteor  which 
exploded  over  "Weston,  Conn.  Dec.  14,  1807. 
Another,  which,  from  a  want  of  the  improved 
methods  of  calculation  used  at  present,  involved 
immense  labor,  is  on  the  elements  of  the  orbit  of 
the  comet  of  1811.  One  of  his  biographers  re- 
marks, that  "  the  original  manuscript  volume  con- 
taining his  calculations,  now  preserved  in  his 
library,  has  one  hundred  and  forty -four  folio  pages 
of  close  figures,  probably  exceeding  one  million  in 
number,  though  the  result  of  this  vast  labor  forms 
but  a  communication  of  twelve  pages."  Another, 
on  Dr.  Stewart's  formula  for  computing  the  motion 
of  the  moon's  apsides,  as  given  in  the  Supplement 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


SI 


to  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  is  interesting,  as 
showing  that  the  method,  although  sanctioned  by 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  astronomers  of 
Europe,  was  true  in  the  particular  case  only,  and, 
as  a  general  method,  entirely  fails.  Besides  these 
articles,  many  others  were  written  by  him  during 
the  same  period,  and  published  in  the  Monthly 
Anthology,  the  North  American  Review,  and 
Silliman's  Journal.  Among  these,  two  papers  in 
opposition  to  the  proposal  of  a  Mr.  Lambert  for 
the  "  establishment  of  a  first  meridian  for  the 
United  States,  at  the  permanent  seat  of  their 
government,"  had  probably  considerable  influence 
in  defeating  the  project,  and  Greenwich  still  re- 
mains the  first  meridian  for  all  who  speak  the 
English  language.  These  papers  subjected  him 
to  a  silly  charge  of  "  zeal  for  the  honor  of  the 
British  nation,"  —  a  charge  which  can  only  find 
a  parallel  for  absurdity  in  that  narrow  jealousy 
of  American  honor,  which  will  not  allow  that  the 
mother  country  is  superior  to  us,  or  more  fortunate, 
in  any  respect  whatever  ;  and  which  is  apt  to  ac- 
cuse him,  who  may  chance  to  think  so,  with  want 
of  patriotism,  if  not  with  actual  corruption.  The 
North  American  Review  for  April,  1825,  contains 
a  very  comprehensive  article  by  Dr.  Bowditch, 
upon  modern  astronomy.  In  one  of  his  articles, 
published  previously  in  the  same  review,  the  inter- 
esting fact  is  stated,  that  "  out  of  thirteen  primary 
planets  and  satellites,  discovered  since  the  year 
1781,  we  are  indebted  to  persons  born  in  Germany 
for  twelve,  and  that,  in  the  determination  of  the 
orbits  of  these  new  bodies,  they  have  done  more 
than  all  the  other  astronomers  in  the  world."  Mr. 
Bowditch  was  also  a  contributor  to  the  Annalist 


52 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITOH. 


and  Mathematical  Diary  ;  and,  it  is  said,  solved 
every  question  proposed  in  that  work.  He  also 
wrote  several  articles  for  the  American  edition  of 
Rees's  Cyclopedia. 

But  the  great  work  on  which  he  rested  his  fame 
for  scientific  knowledge  was  the  translation  of  La 
Place's  Mecanique  Celeste,  and  the  commentary 
with  which  he  accompanied  it.  La  Place  was  the 
son  of  a  simple  peasant  of  Normandy,  and  from 
his  earliest  years  was  remarkable  for  his  intense 
love  of  study.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  visited 
Paris,  and  made  himself  known  to  the  learned 
men  of  that  metropolis  by  some  profound  essays 
upon  certain  difficult  points  in  mechanics.  The 
result  was  that  in  a  few  days  he  was  appointed 
professor  of  mathematics  in  the  public  military 
school.  From  this  time  to  the  end  of  his  life,  he 
was  constantly  occupied  with  the  science  which 
he  loved.  His  greatest  work  was  the  Celestial 
Mechanics.  It  was  "  the  fruit  of  incessant  medi- 
tation upon  the  great  subjects  of  it,  for  more  than 
sixty  years,  and  under  circumstances  the  most 
favorable  that  could  fall  to  the  lot  of  man  ;  the 
author  having  the  entire  command  of  his  time, 
and  being  surrounded  by  all  the  scientific  men  of 
France,  who  could  render  him  any  aid  in  their 
respective  departments.  If  an  observation  in 
astronomy  was  required,  —  if  any  experiment 
in  meteorology,  in  chemistry,  in  mechanics,  —  if 
laborious  calculations  were  wanted  in  mathematics, 
in  order  to  verify  his  theories,  —  the  most  eminent 
men  in  France,  at  the  most  advanced  period  of 
human  knowledge,  may  be  truly  said  to  have  been 
at  his  command  ;  some  of  them,  indeed,  literally  so, 
by  orders  of  the  government ;  and  others,  from 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


33 


that  common  zeal  in  the  cause  of  science,  which 
is  always  glowing  in  such  a  community."  * 

The  first  volume  of  La  Place's  work  was  pub- 
lished in  1799,  and  the  fourth  in  1805.  Shortly 
before  his  death,  about  twenty  years  afterwards, 
he  published  the  fifth  and  last  volume.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly the  greatest  and  most  important  mathe- 
matical work  written  since  the  Principia  of  Sir 
Isaac  Newton.  Its  object  is  to  explain  the  whole 
mechanism  of  the  heavens  on  strict  mathematical 
principles  ;  to  demonstrate  that  all  the  apparent 
anomalies  and  irregularities  in  the  forms  and 
motions  of  the  planets  are  in  accordance  with  fixed 
laws.  "  Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,"  he  says  in  his  preface,  "  Newton  pub- 
lished his  discovery  of  universal  gravitation. 
Mathematicians  have,  since  that  epoch,  succeeded 
in  reducing  to  this  great  law  of  nature  all  the 
known  phenomena  of  the  system  of  the  world,  and 
have  thus  given  to  the  theories  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  and  to  astronomical  tables  an  unexpected 
degree  of  precision.  My  object  is  to  present  a 
connected  view  of  these  theories,  which  are  now 
scattered  in  a  great  number  of  works.  The  whole 
of  the  results  of  gravitation  upon  the  equilibrium 
and  motions  of  the  fluid  and  solid  bodies,  which 
compose  the  solar  system  and  the  similar  systems 
existing  in  the  immensity  of  space,  constitute  the 
object  of  Celestial  Mechanics  ;  or,  the  application 
of  the  principles  of  mechanics  to  the  motions  and 
figure  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Astronomy,  con- 
sidered in  the  most  general  manner,  is  a  great 
problem  of  mechanics,  in  which  the  elements  of 


*  Pickering's  Eulogy. 


34  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 

the  motions  are  the  arbitary  constant  quantities. 
The  solution  of  this  problem  depends,  at  the  same 
time,  upon  the  accuracy  of  the  observation,  and 
upon  the  perfection  of  the  analysis.  It  is  very 
important  to  reject  every  empirical  process,  and 
to  complete  the  analysis,  so  that  it  shall  not  be 
necessary  to  derive  from  observations  any  but 
indispensable  data.  The  intention  of  this  work 
is  to  obtain,  as  far  as  may  be  in  my  power,  this 
interesting  result." 

No  one  of  the  natural  sciences  fills  its  student 
with  such  exalted  emotions,  or  raises  his  thoughts 
so  far  above  the  meaner  things  of  earth,  as  astrono- 
my. None  requires  so  extended  a  range  of  ob- 
servation, so  profound  thought,  so  various  and 
intricate  calculations,  to  comprehend  and  de- 
monstrate its  laws ;  and  no  other  knowledge  can 
fill  the  mind  of  the  unlearned  beholder  with  such 
wonder  and  awe.  The  laws  of  mechanics,  of 
chemistry,  of  medicine,  are  indeed  wonderful ;  but 
any  one  can  see  how  they  are  investigated.  The 
subjects  are  in  our  hands  ;  we  can  try  them  by 
such  tests  as  we  please,  and  make  the  results  evi- 
dent by  what  we  call  the  simplest  and  most  un- 
mistakable proof.  But  to  weigh  the  stars  in 
scales  ;  to  predict  the  very  moment  when  the 
moon  shall  veil  her  face  ;  and  foretell  to  a  minute 
when  the  sun,  a  hundred  years  hence,  shall  be 
turned  to  darkness ;  and  when  the  fiery  comet, 
which  dashes  so  fiercely  through  the  heavens,  com- 
ing we  know  not  whence,  and  going  we  know  not 
whither,  shall,  after  wandering  years  upon  years 
beyond  all  mortal  sight,  again  come  back  to  render 
obedience  to  the  sun ;  —  this  seems  to  the  unin- 
structed  akin  to  omniscience,  and  to  the  learned 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


35 


is  as  interesting  and  solemn  an  exhibition  as  can 
be  of  the  mysterious  powers  of  the  spirit  within 
us.  Hence  in  all  ages  the  study  of  astronomy  has 
awakened  intense  enthusiasm  ;  and  those  have 
been  reckoned  among  the  greatest  luminaries  of 
science,  who  have  propounded  the  laws  of  the 
heavens.*  That  results  so  vast,  so  complicated, 
so  wonderful,  could  be  accounted  for  by  a  single 
law,  —  a  law  as  necessary  for  explaining  the 
minutest  phenomenon  of  every-day  life,  as  for  ex- 
plaining the  motions  of  the  heavens,  —  was  the 
discovery  of  the  great  Englishman,  Newton.  The 
more  various,  complete,  rigid  application  and  de- 
monstration of  the  law  was  left  for  the  great 


*  Since  writing  the  above,  a  discovery  has  been  made  of 
such  extreme  interest,  that  we  do  not  hesitate  to  give  an 
account  of  it.  mainly  in  the  words  of  Prof.  Loomis  of  the 
New  York  University.  It  seems  that  the  planet  Herschell, 
or,  as  more  commonly  called,  Uranus,  was  long  known  as 
a  star  before  it  was  recognized  as  upland.  In  constructing 
tables  for  this  planet,  astronomers  found  it  impossible  to 
represent  its  motion  correctly.  The  discrepancies  between 
the  tables  and  the  motion  as  determined  by  observation 
were  so  great,  that  some  began  to  doubt  whether  the  law  of 
gravitation,  at  such  a  distance  from  the  sun,  was  strict! v 
true.  In  a  paper  read  before  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences  on  the  31st  of  August.  1S4G,  M.  Le  Vender  de- 
monstrated that  all  the  observations  of  Uranus  since  1690 
could  be  perfectly  represented  by  supposing  the  existence 
of  a  planet  at  a  great  distance  beyond  Uranus :  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  assign  its  precise  magnitude  and  position.  Its 
distance  from  the  sun  was  3,500  millions  of  miles  :  it  made 
one  revolution  in  217  years:  and  its  weight  was  thirty- 
eight  times  that  of  our  earth.  He  assigned  its  present 
position  near  the  star  Delta  Capricorni:  its  brightness  about 
one  third  that  of  Uranus,  which  would  make  it  a  star  of  the 
eighth  magnitude;  and  he  concluded  that  a  good  telescope 
must  show  it  with  an  appreciable  disc.  He  then  wrote  to 
Dr.  Galle  of  Berlin  to  look  for  it  in  the  place  he  had  indi- 


36 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


Frenchman.  This  he  accomplished;  and  his  work, 
to  quote  the  words  of  Prof.  Playfair,  "  afFords  an 
example,  which  is  yet  solitary  in  the  history  of 
human  knowledge,  of  a  theory  entirely  complete  ; 
one  that  has  not  only  accounted  for  all  the  phe- 
nomena that  were  known,  but  that  has  discovered 
many  before  unknown,  which  observation  has  since 
recognized.  In  this  theory,  not  only  the  elliptic 
motions  of  the  planets,  relatively  to  the  sun,  but 
the  irregularities  produced  by  their  mutual  action, 
whether  of  the  primary  on  the  primary,  of  the 
primary  on  the  secondary,  or  of  the  secondary  on 
one  another,  are  all  deduced  from  the  principle 
of  gravitation,  —  that  mysterious  power,  which 


cated.  Galle  found  it  the  first  night.  It  was  a  star  of  the 
eighth  magnitude,  had  an  appreciable  disc,  and  was  near 
the  spot  which  Le  Verrier  had  computed.  This  discovery 
was  made  on  the  23d  of  September;  the  planet  was  observed 
at  London  on  the  30th ;  and  has  since  been  seen  at  several 
places  in  this  country.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Le  Verrier's 
orbit  is  a  near  approximation  to  the  truth.  The  planet's 
place  in  the  heavens,  its  distance,  and  its  magnitude,  had 
been  correctly  computed  ;  and  all  from  studying  the  motions 
of  another  body  distant  from  it  at  the  nearest  about  1800 
millions  of  miles.  The  annals  of  science  may  be  searched 
in  vain  for  a  discovery  equally  wonderful.  When  La 
Place  computed  the  figure  of  the  earth  from  an  analysis  of 
the  motion  of  the  moon,  it  seemed  almost  the  work  of  om- 
niscience ;  but  La  Place  only  arrived  by  a  new  method  at 
a  result  known  before.  Le  Verrier,  by  studying  the  motions 
of  a  distant  and  obscure  planet,  demonstrated  the  exist- 
ence of  a  body  before  unknown  ;  told  where  it  was ;  what 
orbit  it  was  pursuing ;  and  how  many  pounds  it  weighed. 
The  astronomer  had  but  to  point  his  telescope,  and  this 
distant  body,  so  long  buried  in  the  depths  of  space,  and 
which  had  caused  him  such  perplexity,  was  caught  at  once. 
The  discovery  confirms  the  accuracy  of  the  Newtonian  law 
of  gravitation,  and  explains  all  the  anomalies  in  the 
motions  of  Uranus." 


NATHANIEL  B0WD1TCII. 


37 


unites  the  most  distant  regions  of  spwce,  and  the 
most  remote  periods  of  duration.  To  this  we 
must  add  the  great  truths,  —  brought  in  view  and 
fully  demonstrated  by  tracing  the  action  of  the 
same  power  through  all  its  mazes,  —  that  all 
the  inequalities  in  our  system  are  periodical ;  that, 
by  a  fixed  appointment  in  nature,  they  are  each 
destined  to  revolve  in  the  same  order,  and  between 
the  same  limits ;  that  the  mean  distances  of  the 
planets  from  the  sun,  and  the  time  of  their  revolu- 
tions round  that  body,  are  susceptible  of  no  change 
whatever ;  that  our  system  is  thus  secured  against 
natural  decay ;  order  and  regularity  preserved  in 
the  midst  of  so  many  disturbing  causes ;  and  an- 
archy and  misrule  eternally  proscribed."  * 

The  briefest  mention  of  the  subjects  treated  of 
by  La  Place,  will  show  the  comprehensiveness 
of  the  work.  Some  of  them  are  the  following :  — 
The  laws  of  equilibrium  and  motion  ;  the  law 
of  universal  gravitation,  and  the  motions  of  the 
centres  of  gravity  of  the  heavenly  bodies  ;  the 
figures  of  the  heavenly  bodies  deduced  theoreti- 
cally, and  then  compared  with  the  actual  observa- 
tions made  of  the  figures  of  the  earth  and  the  planet 
Jupiter ;  the  oscillations  of  the  sea  and  the  atmo- 
sphere ;  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  about 
their  own  centres  of  gravity;  the  theory  of  the 
planetary  motions,  and  their  inequalities  and  per- 
turbations ;  the  theory  of  comets ;  light,  and  the 
theory  of  astronomical  refractions,  &c.  &c. 

"  It  will  not  be  uninteresting,"  says  Mr.  Picker- 
ing in  his  Eulogy  on  Dr.  Bowditch,  delivered  be- 
fore the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 


*  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  II.  p.  277. 
VOL.  II. — .   4  v 


3  fie 


38  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 

"  to  pause  here  a  moment,  and  in  imagination 
place  ourselves  at  a  height,  from  which  the  vast 
subject  of  La  Place's  labors  ought  to  be  surveyed. 
If,  then,  we  concentrate  our  attention  upon  it  as 
an  entire  object,  we  perceive  the  powerful  intellect 
of  the  author,  grasping  the  general  phenomena  of 
the  matter  of  the  universe,  from  the  whole  mass 
down  to  the  minute  and  invisible  particles,  which 
are  the  ultimate  component  parts  of  that  mass; 
beginning  with  the  laws  of  equilibrium  and  motion, 
generally,  as  applicable  to  all  matter,  solid  and 
fluid  ;  then  proceeding,  step  by  step,  to  the  sub- 
division or  parts  of  the  whole,  considered  as  sys- 
tems of  bodies  ;  and,  next,  to  the  individual  bodies 
that  are  members  of  those  systems ;  then,  con- 
sidering the  laws  of  gravitation,  and  the  mutual 
attraction  and  perturbations  of  the  heavenly  bodies; 
next,  our  own  solar  system,  its  planets,  satellites, 
and  comets  ;  and,  from  the  consideration  of  these, 
the  author  is  led  to  the  attraction  of  bodies  of  a 
particular  character,  that  is,  those  which  are  ho- 
mogeneous and  of  a  spheroidal  form,  of  which  the 
earth  is  an  example,  and  is  particularly  discussed; 
and,  connected  with  which,  is  the  figure  of  a  fluid 
mass  in  equilibrium,  and  having  a  rotatory  motion, 
as  the  ocean  of  our  earth ;  and,  finally,  after  con- 
sidering the  attraction  between  masses  of  matter, 
the  author  proceeds  to  that  which  takes  place  be- 
tween their  particles. 

"  In  this  manner  does  the  author  bring  into  one 
grand  and  magnificent  review,  the  wonderful 
phenomena  of  all  matter,  the  entire  mass  of  the 
material  world,  through  the  various  portions  into 
which  it  may  be  divided,  till  he  arrives  at  those 
inconceivably  minute  particles  wdiose  law  of  at- 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


39 


traction  cannot  be  certainly  determined  by  the 
phenomena,  because  they  elude  the  power  of 
human  observation." 

This  sketch  of  the  extent  and  magnitude  of  the 
work  of  La  Place,  seemed  necessary  in  order  to 
give  a  better  understanding  of  the  labor  of  trans- 
lating and  commenting  upon  it.  To  translate 
merely  might  have  been  a  comparatively  easy 
task.  But  the  original  work  is  extremely  abstruse. 
Steps  in  the  demonstration  are  often  omitted. 
Dr.  Bovvditch  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  Whenever 
I  meet  in  La  Place  with  the  words,  —  '  Thus  it 
plainly  appears,'  I  am  sure  that  hours  and  perhaps 
days  of  hard  study  will  alone  enable  me  to  discover 
how  it  plainly  appears."  It  was  said  by  an 
English  writer,  that  there  were  scarcely  twelve 
men  in  Great  Britain  who  could  read  the  work 
with  any  tolerable  facility ;  and  of  America,  the 
remark  was  made,  that  there  were  perhaps  two  or 
three  persons  besides  Dr.  Bowditch  who  could  read 
the  original  critically  :  but  it  was  doubted  whether 
the  whole  of  it  had  been  so  read  by  one. 

It  was  the  object  of  the  translator  to  elucidate 
the  difficult  demonstrations  by  supplying  the  de- 
ficient steps,  and  carrying  the  processes  still  farther 
if  necessary ;  and  to  continue  the  work  to  the 
present  time,  so  as  to  put  the  reader  in  full  pos- 
session of  all  the  recent  "  improvements  and  dis- 
coveries in  mathematical  science."  Another  object 
was  to  do  full  justice  to  the  distinguished  mathe- 
maticians to  whom  La  Place  was  indebted,  but  to 
whom  he  gave  no  credit.  The  most  eminent  of 
these  was  Lagrange,  for  whose  character,  as  well 
as  remarkable  attainments,  Dr.  Bowditch  had  the 
highest  respect.    How  perfectly  he  attained  these 


40 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


ends  would  be  best  attested  by  the  numerous  marks 
of  approbation  he  received  from  distinguished 
scholars  and  scientific  bodies,  the  world  over.  To 
him  belongs  the  honor  of  placing  this  great  work 
within  the  reach  of  all  who  speak  the  English 
language.  The  amount  of  labor  may  be,  to  some 
extent,  inferred  from  the  fact,  that,  while  in  the 
original  there  are  about  fifteen  hundred  pages,  in 
the  translation  there  are  three  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  eighteen.  On  almost  every  page  the 
notes  exceed  the  text.  There  are  about  "  three 
pages  of  commentary  for  every  two  of  the  original." 
These  notes  were  made  at  the  time  of  reading  the 
volumes  as  they  were  successively  published, 
although  they  were  in  a  great  measure  re-written 
about  the  time  of  publishing,  so  as  to  incorporate 
the  additional  matter,  u  rendered  necessary  by  the 
progress  of  mathematical  science."  The  translation 
of  the  four  volumes  was  made  between  the  years 
1814  and  1817,  while  Dr.  Bowditch  was  engaged 
in  all  the  other  duties  to  which  we  have  before 
alluded.  Although  he  had  such  profound  respect 
for  the  genius  of  La  Place,  Dr.  Bowditch  was  not 
a  blind  follower.  In  the  course  of  his  commentary, 
lie  notices  several  errors  in  the  original  work,  and 
accepts  certain  of  the  results  obtained,  only  with 
limitations.  One  of  the  most  important  and  inter- 
esting of  his  questions  is  on  La  Place's  proof  of 
the  permanency  of  the  solar  system  ;  and  he  shows 
that  "  however  just  the  inference  may  be,  that  the 
orbits  of  the  three  exterior  planets,  Jupiter,  Saturn, 
and  Uranus,  can  never  be  very  eccentrical,  or 
deviate  much  from  the  same  plane ;  yet  it  does 
not  follow,  from  the  same  equations,  that  the  orbits 
of  the  smaller  planets  will  always  be  nearly  circu- 


3S~f 

NATHANIEL    BOWDITCH.  41 


lar,  and  in  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic ;  for  the  orbits 
of  these  might  be  very  eccentric,  and  even  para- 
bolic, and  the  planes  of  them  be  perpendicular  to 
each  other,  and  yet  the  equation  be  satisfied." 

This  gigantic  work  was  not  published  for  twelve 
years  after  the  translation  was  completed.  The 
friends  of  the  translator  had  often  urged  him  to 
accept  their  pecuniary  assistance  in  bringing  it 
from  the  press,  and  the  American  Academy 
liberally  offered  to  print  the  whole  at  their  ex- 
pense. Dr.  Bowditeh  preferred,  however,  to  retain 
his  feeling  of  independence.  He  was  aware  that 
the  work  would  have  but  few  readers,  and  he 
chose  to  delay  the  publication  until  he  was  able  to 
print  it  himself.  This  he  finally  did  in  four  quarto 
volumes,  of  nearly  one  thousand  pages  each,  in  a 
style  of  elegance  suited  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
work,  and  at  a  cost  of  more  than  ten  thousand 
dollars.  The  volumes  were  published  successively 
in  the  years  1829,  1832,  1834,  and  1839,  the  last 
not  being  finished  until  after  the  death  of  the 
translator.  The  fifth  volume  of  the  original  work 
was  never  translated.  The  deficiency  is  of  less 
consequence,  since,  to  a  considerable  extent,  the 
contents  have  been  incorporated  in  the  notes  to 
those  already  published. 

For  the  sake  of  giving  as  complete  an  account 
as  possible  of  this  great  work,  many  incidents  of 
his  life  at  Salem  have  been  passed  over.  We 
will  recur  to  some  of  them  now.  The  knowledge 
of  his  scientific  attainments  was  early  diffused, 
and  led  to  several  proposals,  which  were  not  the 
less  gratifying  because  he  concluded  not  to  accept 
them.  In  1806,  he  was  elected  Professor  of 
Mathematics  in  Harvard  University  ;  in  1818,  he 

YOfc.  TL  -  it* 


42 


NATHANIEL  BOWDI T C  H . 


was  requested  by  Mr.  Jefferson  to  take  the  same 
office  in  the  University  of  Virginia  ;  in  1820,  Mr. 
Calhoun,  then  Secretary  of  War,  desired  him  to 
consent  to  a  nomination  to  the  vacant  professor- 
ship of  mathematics  at  West  Point.  One  reason 
of  his  declining  these  appointments  was  his  reluc- 
tance to  speaking  in  public.  Beside  these  testi- 
monials to  his  character,  he  received  others  in  the 
shape  of  elections  to  various  learned  bodies.  The 
American  Philosophical  Society  admitted  him  as 
a  member,  in  1809  ;  the  Connecticut  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  in  1813  ;  the  Literary  and 
Philosophical  Society  of  New  York,  in  1815  ;  the 
Edinburgh  Royal  Society,  in  1818 ;  the  Royal 
Society  of  London,  in  1818 ;  and  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy,  in  1819.  The  degree  of  LL.  D.  was 
conferred  upon  him  by  Harvard  University,  in 
1816.  At  a  later  period  of  his  life,  after  the  first 
volumes  of  the  translation  of  La  Place  were  pub- 
lished, he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society  of  London,  —  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Palermo, — the  British  Association, — 
and  the  Royal  Academy  of  Berlin.  Had  he 
but  lived  a  little  longer,  he  would  probably  have 
been  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Institute  of 
France ;  inquiries  having  been  proposed  by  that 
distinguished  body,  just  before  his  death,  which 
would  probably  have  led  to  that  result. 

In  1823,  Dr.  Bowditch  received  an  invitation 
to  take  charge  of  a  marine  insurance  company 
in  Boston,  in  connection  with  the  Massachusetts 
Hospital  Life  Insurance  Company.  He  at  first 
declined,  although  the  compensation  offered  was 
three  times  as  great  as  he  was  receiving  at 
Salem ;  but  the  invitation  was  soon  more  urgently 


N  ATI!  A X I  EL   B O A V DITCH. 


43 


repeated,  and  the  proposed  salary  raised  to  five 
thousand  dollars,  so  that  he  thought  it  not  right 
for  him  to  refuse,  the  solicitation,  especially  as  the 
refusal  would  only  have  led  to  a  still  higher  offer 
on  the  part  of  those  who  were  determined  to 
secure  his  services.  lie  left  Salem  with  regret, 
and  received,  at  his  departure,  a  public  demonstra- 
tion of  the  high  regard  of  his  friends. 

After  removing  to  Boston,  he  continued  to  su- 
perintend both  the  institutions  with  which  he  had 
become  connected,  until  his  business  as  Actuary 
of  the  Life  Insurance  Company  became  so  great 
as  to  occupy  all  his  time,  when  he  relinquished 
his  connection  with  the  other  corporation,  whose 
concerns  were  brought  to  a  close  and  its  charter 
surrendered.  In  the  mean  time,  the  institution 
with  which  he  remained  connected  until  his  death, 
greatly  enlarged  its  operations.  It  was  first  in- 
corporated with  a  capital  of  half  a  million,  with 
power  to  effect  insurances  upon  lives  and  to  grant 
annuities.  To  this  was  soon  added,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  suggestions  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  the 
right  to  receive  money  in  trust,  so  as  to  become 
a  great  savings  bank.  This  part  of  the  business 
increased  under  his  excellent  control,  until  the 
amount  of  property  received  exceeded  five  millions 
of  dollars.  To  manage  funds  so  large,  entrusted 
to  the  institution  by  those  whose  want  of  ability 
or  whose  circumstances  prevented  them  from 
taking  care  of  their  own,  required  great  firmness, 
delicacy,  and  sagacity.  It  is  needless  to  say,  that 
by  the  possession  of  all  these  qualities,  together 
with  scrupulous  integrity,  and  the  utmost  openness 
and  fairness,  Dr.  Bowditch  disarmed  the  prejudices 
which  many  felt  against  such  a  gigantic  moneyed 

j/ 


NATHANIF.L  ROVTDITCH. 


institution,  and  obtained  for  it-a  degree  of  respect 
and  credit  from  all  classes  in  the  community,  as 
entire  as  was  ever  accorded  to  any  similar  insti- 
tution in  the  world. 

The  management  of  the  business  of  the  office 
was  directed  by  himself.  He  calculated  interest- 
tables  for  the  use  of  the  corporation,  which  saved 
the  constant  employment  of  a  clerk.  He  intro- 
duced such  simplicity  and  perspicuity  in  the  forms 
of  the  blanks  and  the  books  for  accounts,  that 
hardly  any  change  has  been  since  found  neces- 
sary, and  the  transaction  of  business  is  greatly 
facilitated.  He  always  attended  personally  to 
every  contract  made  by  the  Company,  and  to 
every  note  or  mortgage  taken  by  it.  The  greatest 
regularity  and  method  were  introduced  into  the 
transactions  ;  and  although  a  rule  might,  in  some 
cases,  seem  to  be  severe,  he  would  rather  adhere 
to  it,  than,  by  departing  from  it,  give  license 
for  its  general  violation. 

To  be  consistent,  and  preserve  strictly  the 
rules  of  the  office,  sometimes  required  great  moral 
courage  and  independence.  A  wealthy  gentleman 
called  on  a  Saturday  to  deposit  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars. His  funds  in  the  bank  were  three  hundred 
dollars  short  of  that  amount,  and  he  offered  his 
check  for  that  sum,  to  be  paid  on  Monday.  The 
actuary  declined  to  take  as  cash  a  check  payable 
at  a  future  day ;  the  rule  of  the  office  forbade 
it.  The  gentleman  was  astonished  that  he  could 
not  be  trusted  a  day  for  so  small  a  sum.  Dr. 
Bowditch  remarked,  "  I  am  happy  that  it  has  be- 
come necessary  to  enforce  this  rule  in  an  extreme 
case.  Having  been  once  applied  to  yourself,  no 
one  else  can  ever  object  to  a  compliance  with  it." 


NATHANIEL   BOWDITCH.  45 


The  result  was,  that  Dr.  Bowditch  supplied  the 
deficiency  from  his  own  funds,  and  received  the 
check  himself. 

On  another  occasion,  a  gentleman  called  to  de- 
posit a  sum  of  money  in  behalf  of  a  young  lady, 
his  ward.  While  he  was  there,  another  gentle- 
man, a  friend  of  the  actuary,  called  to  request 
him  to  take  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  dollars. 
Mr.  Bowditch  declined.  "  Why  not  receive  from 
me,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  as  well  as  from  any- 
body else  ?  "  "  Because  you  can  take  care  of  the 
money  for  yourself.  Whenever,  as  at  present  is 
the  case,  there  is  so  much  money  in  possession 
of  the  Company  uninvested,  that  it  will  not  be  a 
decided  advantage  for  them  to  take  any  more, 
I  receive  it  only  from  such  as  cannot  take  care  of 
it  themselves.  For  such  cases,  especially,  was  the 
Company  designed.  It  is  a  sort  of  savings  bank, 
except  that  it  is  on  a  larger  scale  than  usual.'1 

It  was  a  rule,  which  he  thought  an  important 
one,  never  to  receive  money  from  foreigners,  or 
residents  out  of  New  England.  Hence,  on  one 
occasion,  he  refused  one  or  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  offered  to  him  by  a  resident  in  Nova  Sco- 
tia, although  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  time, 
in  his  opinion,  rendered  the  acquisition  of  so  large 
a  sum  very  desirable. 

It  was  a  duty  of  the  messenger  of  the  office  to 
receive  the  interest  paid  on  mortgages  and  notes, 
and  hand  it  immediately  to  the  actuary  to  be  en- 
dorsed. If  persons  called  to  make  payment  after 
business  hours,  and  were  willing  to  entrust  the 
sum  to  this  officer,  taking  his  promise  that  the  en- 
dorsement should  be  made  the  next  day,  he  was 
accustomed  to  receive  it.    Several  years  since, 


46 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


the  messenger,  yielding  to  temptation,  spent  a 
sum  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  so  receiv- 
ed, intending  to  replace  it  from  his  salary,  which 
in  a  few  days  would  be  paid.  The  solicitor  of 
the  Company,  a  son  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  came  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  transaction,  through  the  confes- 
sion of  the  delinquent,  the  day  before  the  salary 
was  due.  The  messenger  besought  him  so  ear- 
nestly not  to  reveal  the  matter  to  the  actuary, 
and  gave  such  solemn  assurances  that  the  money 
should  be  paid  on  the  morrow,  that  the  son, 
though  reluctantly,  consented.  The  morrow 
came,  —  the  salary  was  paid  ;  but  the  messenger, 
instead  of  fulfilling  his  promise,  handed  it  to  a 
creditor,  who  threatened  him  with  the  severity  of 
the  law.  As  soon  as  this  was  known,  the  solicitor 
disclosed  to  Dr.  Bowditch  the  original  offence. 
The  reply  Avas,  "  Had  it  been  your  own  money, 
you  would  have  been  at  liberty  to  listen  to  the 
dictates  of  compassion  and  humanity  ;  but,  as  an 
officer  of  this  institution,  you  have  committed, 
though  unintentionally,  a  great  fault,  which  I  can 
with  difficulty  overlook.  You  must  give  me  your 
own  check  for  the  whole  amount  of  the  deficit, 
since,  by  a  timely  exposure,  the  Company  could 
have  withheld  the  salary  which  has  just  been  paid. 
This  being  done,  all  further  action  I  leave  to  the 
Directors."  It  was  a  principle  with  Dr.  Bow- 
ditch, insisted  upon  more  strongly  than  ever  after 
this  affair,  "  that  no  person  under  pecuniary  embar- 
rassment should  remain  connected  with  the  office. 
To  see  the  note  of  one  of  its  officers  offered  upon 
'change,  would,  with  him,  at  any  time,  have  been 
a  conclusive  reason  for  his  instant  dismissal.  He 
knew  intimately  the  weakness  of  human  nature  ; 


NATHANIEL.  BOWDITCH. 


47 


that  honesty  and  integrity  may  in  a  moment  be 
lost  by  those  fatal  entanglements  ;  and  he  regard- 
ed the  prayer  for  delivery  from  temptation  as 
one  of  vital  importance.  In  his  own  conduct,  he 
practised  upon  the  same  rule.  He  never  endorsed 
or  became  surety  for  any  of  his  children,  or 
made  any  engagements  by  which  he  might  become 
liable  to  forfeit  his  independence." 

On  returning  to  the  office  one  day  after  a  few 
minutes'  absence,  he  found  that  he  had  accidental- 
ly left  open  a  trunk  "  containing  all  the  convertible 
property  of  the  Company."  No  one  was  present 
or  had  been,  except  one  of  his  fellow-officers,  in 
whom  he  had  the  greatest  confidence.  Without 
saying  a  word,  he  took  out  and  carefully  examined 
every  paper.  Many  persons  would  regard  this 
as  a  practical  expression  of  want  of  confidence  in 
the  gentleman  who  alone  had  been  present.  He 
did  not  intend  it  as  such ;  for  there  was  no  one  in 
whom  he  reposed  more  trust.  Some  would  think 
it  such  an  excess  of  a  virtue,  as  to  border  upon  a 
fault,  —  a  degree  of  carefulness  nearly  allied  to  a 
disagreeable  habit  of  suspicion.  But  in  this  age 
of  dishonesty,  of  indifference  to  public  property, 
when  so  many  widows  and  orphans  have  lost 
their  whole  living  by  the  reckless  mismanagement 
of  public  institutions,  and  when  the  actions  of 
even  sovereign  and  independent  States  have 
tended  so  greatly  to  impair  in  men's  minds  the 
sacredness  of  obligations,  we  will  more  than  par- 
don one  who  exaggerates,  if  he  can,  the  old-fash- 
ioned virtue  of  integrity,  —  we  will  look  upon 
him  with  veneration. 

To  multiply  instances  which  exhibit  the  sterling 
virtues  of  his  character  would  too  much  extend 
this  sketch,  already  protracted  beyond  the  assign- 

0/* 


48  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 

ed  limits.  We  must  hasten  to  a  conclusion.  Dr. 
Bowditch  manifested  the  same  general  interest  in 
the  public  institutions  of  Boston,  as  before  in  those 
of  Salem.  He  became  connected  with  several 
charitable  societies.  From  1826  to  1833,  he  was 
a  Trustee  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  and  was  the 
means  of  adding  to  its  funds  and  general  pros- 
perity. One  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  was 
published  while  he  was  its  President.  In  1826, 
he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  corporation  of 
Harvard  University,  —  he,  who  never  called  it 
alma  mater,  nor  owed  it  any  thing  for  instruc- 
tion, beyond  what  all  in  the  community  owe  to  a 
beneficent  institution  by  whose  influences  they 
are  guided  and  assisted,  though  they  know  it  not. 
He  retained  this  connection  till  his  death,  and 
always  regarded  the  days  of  its  annual  festivities 
as  his  "  high  holidays." 

In  1834,  Dr.  Bowditch  was  deeply  afflicted  by 
the  death  of  his  wife,  who  died  on  the  17th  of 
April.  This  excellent  lady  had  always  rendered 
her  husband  the  utmost  assistance  in  her  power, 
in  pursuing  his  arduous  studies.  She  encouraged 
him  to  undertake  the  publishing  of  his  great  work, 
and  never  counted  a  sacrifice  worth  the  naming 
which  contributed  to  advance  the  higher  interests 
of  science.*    But  for  her,  the  translation  of  La 


*  Mr.  Pickering  places  her  example  beside  that ':  which 
the  history  of  literature  has  recorded  of  the  illustious  Ger- 
man scholar,  Reiske,  who  would  have  refunded  to  his  six 
subscribers  the  price  of  their  copies,  and  then  have  aban- 
doned in  despair  the  publication  of  his  great  work  (the 
Greek  orators),  had  not  his  affectionate  and  resolute  con- 
sort, in  a  determined  tone,  said  to  him, Trust  in  God ;  sell 
my  jewels  to  defray  the  expense :  what  are  a  few  shining 
baubles  to  my  happiness  ?  "  —  Eulogy,  p.  33. 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


43 


Place  would  not,  probably,  have  been  published. 
It  "was  fitting,  —  a  beautiful  tribute,  indeed, — 
that  the  work  should  be  dedicated  to  her  memory. 

Dr.  Bowditch's  manner  of  life  was  methodical, 
and  his  health  generally  good.  He  rose  early, 
breakfasted  before  the  rest  of  his  family,  studied 
two  or  three  hours,  walked,  and  then  went  to  his 
office.  At  two  o'clock  the  office  was  closed,  and 
before  three  he  dined,  after  which  he  indulged 
in  a  short  nap.  On  awaking,  he  went  to  his 
studies  again,  *and  near  the  close  of  the  afternoon 
visited  the  office  to  see  if  any  thing  required  his 
attention.  The  evening  was  devoted  to  study  and 
conversation.  Although  he  daily  gave  so  much 
time  to  mathematics,  it  was  said  of  him,  "  You 
never  saw  the  mathematician,  unless  you  inquired 
for  him"  His  stores  of  knowledge  on  a  variety 
of  subjects  were  great,  and  his  range  of  reading 
somewhat  general,  although  he  preferred  history 
and  biography.  Fiction  he  reserved  "  till  the 
thermometer  stood  at  90°." 

Towards  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1837,  he 
began  to  experience  frequent  pain  and  uneasiness, 
but,  as  he  said,  could  not  afford  time  to  be  sick. 
Early  in  January  of  the  following  year,  he  called 
in  a  distinguished  physician,  and  his  disease  was 
soon  pronounced  to  be  of  a  dangerous  character. 
The  symptoms  became  more  and  more  alarming ; 
his  stomach  rejected  all  solid  food,  and  his  suf- 
ferings were  intense.  He  continued,  however, 
daily  to  sit  for  some  time  in  his  library,  until 
the  day  before  his  death.  On  the  7th  of  March, 
he  made  his  farewell  communication  to  the  Com- 
pany, whose  affairs  he  had  long  superintended, 
taking  an  ^gectionate  leave  of  its  officers  and 

JZjOL.  ii.  5  ^ 


36t 

50  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 

directors.  The  fourth  volume  of  his  translation 
was  at  this  time  going  through  the  press,  and  he 
continued  as  usual  to  correct  the  proof-sheets  until 
a  very  short  time  before  his  death.  The  last 
page  which  he  saw  was  the  thousandth ;  the  last 
which  he  carefully  revised,  the  six  hundred  and 
eighty-fourth. 

Like  the  old  philosopher  of  Syracuse,  his  fa- 
vorite studies  were  pursued  to  the  very  end ;  but, 
unlike  that  ancient  scholar,  his  end  approached 
amidst  no  city  ruined,  but  in  a  prosperous,  sym- 
pathizing community,  among  cherished  friends,  by 
whom  his  sufferings  were  soothed,  and  every  want 
anticipated.  It  was  brought  about  by  no  violent 
blow  of  a  brutal  soldier,  but  by  the  merciful,  al- 
though painful,  process  of  disease.  Early  on  Fri- 
day the  16th  of  March,  1838,  it  became  evident 
that  he  was  sinking ;  and  at  about  one  o'clock,  he 
placidly  breathed  his  last.  On  the  following 
Sabbath,  his  remains  were  deposited  in  his  own 
tomb  under  Trinity  Church,  in  Summer  street. 
';  Had  he  lived  until  the  t  wenty-fifth  of  the  month, 
he  would  have  just  completed  his  sixty-fifth  year." 

The  life  thus  sketched,  is  full  of  encouragement 
to  the  scholar,  and  replete  with  lessons  for  all. 
Mr.  Bowditch  was  a  man  of  rare  intellectual  en- 
dowments ;  but,  had  it  not  been  for  his  sterling 
moral  qualities,  he  never  could  have  accomplished 
what  he  did,  nor  have  gained  so  honorable  a  name. 
His  strict  integrity  commanded  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  everybody,  while  his  diligence  and 
perseverance  enabled  him  to  appropriate  to  him- 
self every  intellectual  good  that  came  in  his  way. 
His  rule  was,  to  do  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  to 
finish  whatever  he  began.    He  did  not  decide 


NATHANIEL  BO  WD  ITCH. 


51 


upon  a  course  hastily,  but  having  decided,  he  did 
not  hesitate.  "  Never  undertake  any  thing,"  he 
was  accustomed  to  say,  "  but  with  the  feeling  that 
you  can  and  will  do  it.  With  that  feeling  success 
is  certain,  and  without  it  failure  is  unavoidable." 
By  concentrating  his  energies,  he  overcame  diffi- 
culties which  would  otherwise  have  been  insuper- 
able. By  the  most  diligent  use  of  every  moment, 
he  gained  time  for  great  achievements  in  learning, 
and  had  enough  to  spare  for  the  duties  of  friend- 
ship and  benevolence.  No  one  could  be  a  kinder 
parent,  or  a  more  cheerful  companion.  He  was 
the  life  of  the  circle  at  home,  and  the  delight  of 
every  visiter.  "  You  saw  the  philosopher,"  says 
one  who  knew  him,  "  entering  with  all  the  en- 
thusiasm of  youth,  into  every  subject  of  passing 
interest.  You  saw  his  eye  kindle  with  honest 
indignation,  or  light  up  with  sportive  glee ;  you 
caught  the  infection  of  his  quick,  sharp-toned, 
good-natured  laugh,  and  felt  inclined  to  rub  your 
hands  in  unison  with  him  at  every  sally  of  wit,  or 
every  outbreaking  of  mirthfulness.  Let  the  con- 
versation turn  in  which  way  it  might,  he  was  al- 
ways prepared  to  take  the  lead ;  he  always  seemed 
to  enter  into  it  with  a  keener  zest  than  any  one  else. 
You  were  charmed  and  delighted ;  the  evening 
passed  away  before  you  were  aware,  and  you  did 
not  reflect,  until  you  had  returned  home,  that 
you  had  been  conversing  with  unrestrained  free- 
dom with  the  first  philosopher  in  America."  It 
is  pleasant  to  know  that  his  library,  which,  in  its 
particular  department,  has  no  equal  in  America, 
is  to  be  preserved  unbroken,  and  has  been  dedi- 
cated, by  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Bowditch's  family, 
to  the  use  of  the  public,  so  far  as  it  can  be  done 


52 


NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH. 


without  injury  to  the  books.  His  modesty  was 
as  great  as  bis  learning ;  and  in  this,  as  in  almost 
every  thing  pertaining  to  the  life  of  a  self-taught 
scholar,  he  will  remain  a  notable  example  to  those 
who  may  study  his  character.  His  name  is  one 
which  will  render  our  country  illustrious  among 
the  nations.  His  life  will  stimulate  all  who 
study  it,  to  be  diligent,  studious,  persevering,  and 
upright. 


JAMES  COOK. 


Every  science  is  closely  connected  with  many 
other  sciences,  and  an  advance  in  one  is  sure  to  be 
followed  by  an  advance  in  others.  Of  this  the 
recent  improvements  in  the  science  of  geography 
are  a  memorable  illustration.  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  in  the  history  of  science,  that  we  are  indebted 
for  an  accurate  knowledge  of  our  earth  to  a  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  the  heavens.  The  wandering 
stars  have  taught  us  where  stand  fixed  the  ever- 
lasting hills.  It  would  seem  that  mere  curiosity 
would  have  long  since  prompted  men  to  enlarge 
to  the  utmost  the  boundaries  of  geographical  know- 
ledge, and  to  have  at  least  determined  the  situation 
of  places  with  considerable  accuracy.  But  curiosity, 
although  it  has  accomplished  much,  has  had  many 
things  to  contend  with.  Extensive  explorations 
are  attended  with  great  cost.  Men  went  with 
timidity  —  the  timidity  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition —  into  the  regions  that  lay  much  beyond 
the  bounds  of  civilization ;  where,  besides,  there 
was  little  to  tempt  them,  and  much  that  was  really 
formidable  to  deter.  The  condition  and  character 
of  governments  rendered  them  indifferent  to  the 
state  of  geographical  knowledge,  or  incapable  of 
extending  it ;  and,  above  all,  want  of  skill  in  navi- 
gation hindered  maritime  discoveries';  and  the 
absence  of  proper  instruments  and  of  general  scien- 
tific attainments  prevented  an  accurate  determi- 
nation of  what  was  known.  The  early  travellers 
were  for  the  most  part  merchants,  and  it  may  be 


.34 


JAMES  COOK. 


said,  generally,  that  geography  was  but  a  very 
humble  attendant  upon  commerce. 

The  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  not  discovered 
until  148G.  The  celebrated  voyage  to  India  by 
Vasco  de  Gama,  the  great  Portuguese  navigator, 
did  not  take  place  till  1497.  In  the  mean  time, 
in  1492,  Columbus  had  found  another  world. 
Knowledge  advanced  with  rapid  strides  through 
new  fields,  but  yet  was  neglectful  of  much  that 
lay  scattered  about  the  old.  It  became  general, 
but  had  not  become  accurate  and  severe. 

We  should  think  that  few  things  in  geography 
would  be  determined  sooner  than  the  size  and 
shape  of  well-known  kingdoms,  and  the  position 
of  important  places.  Yet  even  now  ignorance  in 
these  respects  is  not  very  uncommon.  What  dis- 
crepancies, for  example,  in  fixing  the  position  of 
towns  in  Mexico  !  Different  maps  place  the  same 
city  at  points  two  hundred  miles  distant  from  each 
other.  How  imperfectly  have  the  coasts  of  even  the 
old  civilized  nations  been  mapped  out,  until  com- 
paratively modern  times !  Countries  which  contain- 
ed all  the  science  of  the  world  could  not  accurately 
give  their  own  shape  and  dimensions.  Italy,  be- 
fore the  time  of  D'Anville  (the  earlier  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century),  was  thought  to  be  consider- 
ably larger  than  it  really  is  ;  and  that  distinguished 
geographer  was  considered  a  very  bold  man  in  ven- 
turing to  reduce  it  to  proper  magnitude.  When  the 
map  of  France  was  corrected  by  astronomical  obser- 
vations, it  was  found  necessary  to  cut  off  more  than 
a  degree  of  longitude  along  the  western  coast,  from 
Brittany  to  the  southern  part  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay, 
and  more  than  half  a  degree  from  the  shores  of  Lan- 
guedoc  and  Provence :  which  led  Louis  XIV.  to  say 


JAMES  COOK. 


55 


to  the  astronomers  by  whom  the  measurements 
were  corrected,  that  "  he  was  sorry  to  observe  that 
their  journey  had  cost  him  a  large  portion  of  his 
kingdom."  South  America  was  represented,  in 
comparatively  modern  times,  as  nearly  4,500  miles 
across ;  and  North  America,  from  the  mouth  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  on  the  east,  to  New  Albion  on  the 
west,  as  more  than  9,000.  California  was  described 
as  an  island.  Van  Diemen's  Land,  even  after 
being  surveyed  by  a  companion  of  Capt.  Cook, 
was  considered  a  part  of  New  Holland.  Con- 
stantinople, or  rather  Byzantium  on  whose  site  it 
was  built,  the  capital  of  the  Eastern  empire,  was 
placed  by  the  geographer  Ptolemy  (born  A.D.  70) 
two  degrees  too  far  to  the  north ;  which  mistake 
later  Arab  writers,  hearing  that  there  was  an  error 
of  two  degrees,  corrected  by  adding  two  degrees 
more,  —  thus  making  the  city  276  miles  north  of 
its  true  position.  About  the  year  1580,  observa- 
tions were  made  which  gave  the  correct  position, 
or  at  least  an  approximation.  Carthage,  by  the 
same  geographer,  was  placed  313  miles  too  far 
south,  and  "  the  error  was  not  taken  notice  of  till 
1625."  The  Mediterranean  Sea,  instead  of  being 
made,  as  it  should  be,  between  41  and  42  degrees 
in  length,  from  Gibraltar  to  the  present  Scan- 
deroon,  was  made  62  degrees ;  that  is,  more  than 
20  degrees,  or  nearly  1,400  miles,  too  long.  This 
mistake  was  not  corrected  till  the  beginninsr  of 
the  last  century.  The  difference  in  longitude 
between  Rome  and  Nuremberg  was  estimated  in 
the  fifteenth  century  at  620  miles  ;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  at  only  69  miles,  —  a  difference 
considerably  above  500  miles  between  "  two  of 
the  best  known  towns  in  Europe."   In  maps  of  the 


JAMES  COOK. 


sixteenth  century,  Ferrara  in  Italy,  and  Cadiz  in 
Spain,  on  nearly  the  same  parallel  of  latitude, 
were  placed  600  miles  too  far  apart. 

It  was  not  until  astronomy  had  made  consider- 
able advances,  that  geographical  errors,  of  which 
the  above  are  but  specimens,  began  to  be  corrected. 
The  discovery  of  the  satellites  of  Jupiter,  in  1610, 
by  Galileo,  furnished  an  important  means  for 
determining  longitude  with  accuracy.  It  was 
many  years,  however,  before  the  requisite  tables 
and  calculations  were  made,  and  the  telescope 
perfected,  so  as  to  enable  astronomers  to  avail 
themselves  of  this  discovery.  In  1671,  one  of 
the  first  effective  observations  was  made  to  deter- 
mine the  difference  in  longitude  between  Paris 
and  the  observatory  of  Tycho  Brahe,  at  Urani- 
berg,  in  Denmark. 

In  England  the  name  of  Halley  is  held  in  high 
honor  among  men  of  science,  for  many  attainments 
and  discoveries,  and,  among  the  rest,  for  applying 
the  principles  of  astronomy  to  geography.  So 
remarkable  was  his  early  proficiency,  that  in  167G, 
at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  was  sent  to  St.  Helena  to 
make  a  map  of  the  stars  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere. While  there,  he  observed  a  transit  of 
Mercury  across  the  disc  of  the  sun.  It  occurred 
to  him  that  this  apparently  trifling  phenomenon 
might,  by  furnishing  means  for  determining  the 
sun's  parallax,  also  furnish  the  elements  for  cal- 
culating the  dimensions  of  the  solar  system. 
The  transit  of  Venus  seemed  to  him  to  afford  still 
greater  advantages,  but  that  phenomenon  occurs 
very  rarely;  one  had  taken  place  in  1639,  the 
next  would  not  happen  till  1767.  Halley  ear- 
nestly exhorted  astronomers  who  might  then  be 


JAMES  COOK. 


57 


alive,  to  observe  that  event.  It  was  observed ; 
and,  so  far  as  the  subject  of  this  sketch  is  concern- 
ed, it  is  interesting  to  remember  that,  in  order  to 
watch  it,  he  undertook  his  first  great  voyage, 
which,  as  we  shall  see,  so  much  enlarged  our 
knowledge  of  the  globe. 

About  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  the  inter- 
ests of  commerce  prompted  some  of  the  principal 
governments  of  Europe  to  fit  out  expeditions  of 
considerable  magnitude,  partly  for  discovery,  partly 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  colonies,  and  partly 
for  the  direct  purpose  of  trade.  The  interests  of 
science,  too,  began  to  be  regarded  as  of  sufficient 
consequence  to  be  promoted  at  the  public  cost,  and 
to  warrant  liberal  expenditures.  In  1764,  Com- 
modore Byron  was  sent  on  a  voyage  of  discovery 
to  the  southern  seas,  and  was  absent  nearly  two 
years.  One  of  his  two  ships  was  sheathed  with 
copper,  this  being  one  of  the  first  experiments  for 
determining  the  value  of  that  method  of  pre- 
serving the  bottoms  of  vessels  from  the  attack  of 
worms.  After  his  return,  Capt.  Wallis  was  sent 
out  with  the  general  design  of  prosecuting  the  dis- 
coveries still  farther.  He  discovered  the  island 
Otaheite,  or,  as  it  is  now  generally  called,  Tahiti. 
Of  these  voyages,  however,  commerce  was,  at  least, 
as  prominent  a  cause  as  science.  The  preamble  to 
Commodore  Byron's  instructions*  ran  as  follows  : 
"  Whereas  nothing  can  redound  more  to  the  honor 
of  this  nation  as  a  maritime  power,  to  the  dignity 
of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  trade  and  navigation  thereof,  than  to 
make  discoveries  of  countries  hitherto  unknown ; 
and  whereas  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  lands 
and  islands  of  great  extent,  hitherto  unvisited  by 


58 


JAMES  COOK. 


any  European  power,  may  be  found  in  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  between  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  the 
Magellanic  Strait,  within  the  latitudes  convenient 
for  navigation,  and  in  the  climates  adapted  to  the 
produce  of  commodities  useful  in  commerce  ;  and 
whereas  his  majesty's  islands,  called  Pepys  island, 
and  Falkland's  Islands,  lying  within  the  said  track, 
notwithstanding  their  having  been  first  discovered 
and  visited  by  British  navigators,  have  never  yet 
been  sufficiently  surveyed,  as  that  an  accurate 
judgment  may  be  formed  of  their  coasts  and  pro- 
ducts ;  his  majesty  has  thought  fit  that  the 

enterprise  should  now  be  undertaken." 

The  first  great  expedition,  fitted  out  mainly  for 
scientific  purposes,  was  that  which  sailed  from 
Plymouth,  August  26,  1768,  under  the  command 
of  Captain  James  Cook.  The  interest  of  the 
civilized  world  has  ever  clung  to  this  distinguished 
navigator,  in  part,  on  account  of  his  great  pro- 
fessional merits,  and  in  part,  on  account  of  his 
tragic  death.  This  last  circumstance  has  given 
him  a  hold  upon  the  popular  sympathies,  which 
no  other  navigator  ever  obtained.  About  twenty 
years  after  the  first  voyage  of  Cook,  the  French 
commander,  La  Perouse,  emulating  his  fame, 
and  admiring  his  character,  exceeded  his  model, 
perhaps,  in  the  sad  termination  of  his  career.  He 
sailed  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  and  his  genera- 
tion never  heard  of  him  again.  For  nearly  forty 
years  there  was  not  the  slightest  clue  to  dispel 
the  mystery  which  hung  about  his  fate.  But 
common  minds  need  something  tangible  and 
palpable  to  arouse  and  retain  their  interest.  In 
thousands  of  cottages  in  England  and  America 
were  hung  up  rude  prints  of  the  "  Death  of  Capt. 


JAMES  COOK. 


59 


Cook ;"  while  the  mysterious  fate  of  La  Perouse, 
if  we  mistake  not,  produced,  even  among  his 
own  countrymen,  its  most  lasting  impression  upon 
persons  of  comparatively  high  culture,  and  more 
likely  to  be  affected  by  the  gloomy  obscurity  of 
the  unrevealing  sea. 

James  Cook  was  born  in  Yorkshire,  in  the 
year  1728.  His  father  was  a  day  laborer  to  a 
respectable  farmer,  and,  when  his  son  was  two 
years  old,  became  an  under  steward  upon  an 
estate  near  the  village  of  Great  Ayton.  James 
was  kept  at  work  upon  the  farm  till  he  was  thir- 
teen, when  he  was  permitted  to  attend  school. 
He  studied  arithmetic  and  bookkeeping,  and  is 
said  to  have  exhibited  a  good  deal  of  talent  at 
figures.  When  a  few  years  older,  he  was  ap- 
prenticed to  a,  shopkeeper,  in  a  small  fishing  town 
about  ten  miles  from  Whitby.  Here  he  mani- 
fested good  judgment  and  considerable  skill  in 
accounts,  but  his  inclinations  began  to  lead  him 
very  strongly  to  the  sea.  His  master,  willing  to 
indulge  him,  gave  up  his  indentures,  and  he  soon 
engaged  himself  with  the  owners  of  some  vessels 
employed  in  the  coal  trade.  This  navigation, 
carried  on  upon  a  coast,  at  some  seasons  of  the 
year  very  dangerous,  became  from  that  circum- 
stance a  nursery  of  skilful  seamen.  As  Cook 
was  diligent  in  his  new  occupation,  and  gave  sat- 
isfaction to  his  masters,  they  favored  him  with 
opportunities  of  learning  the  various  parts  of  his 
profession ;  and,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  he 
made  voyages,  not  only  upon  the  immediate 
coast,  but  to  Liverpool  and  Dublin,  and  also  to 
the  Baltic. 

In  1752,  he  was  made  mate  of  a  vessel  of  400 


60 


JAMES  COOK. 


tons,  and,  in  the  next  year,  received  the  offer  of 
being  commander  of  the  ship.  This,  however,  he 
saw  tit  to  decline.  Impressments  for  the  British 
navy  were  carried  on,  at  this  time,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent ;  and  either  to  avoid  being  taken  contrary  to 
his  own  consent,  or  for  some  other  reason  which 
does  not  appear,  he  entered  on  board  the  Eagle,  a 
man-of-war  of  sixty  guns,  under  the  command  of 
Captain  (afterwards  Sir  Hugh)  Palliser.  He 
served  on  board  this  vessel  with  so  much  distinc- 
tion, that,  by  aid  of  his  friends,  and  the  strong 
recommendation  of  the  captain,  he  was  appointed 
master  of  the  Mercury,  a  small  vessel  belonging 
to  the  squadron  about  to  proceed  to  the  attack 
upon  Quebec.  He  soon  joined  the  fleet  in  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  his  talents  and  resolution  were  not 
long  in  making  themselves  perceivejd. 

The  fleet  was  expected  to  cooperate  with  the 
land  forces  under  General  Wolfe  ;  but  before  this 
could  be  done,  it  was  necessary  to  sound  the  river, 
so  as  to  determine  the  channel.  This  was  a  diffi- 
cult task,  since  it  must  be  carried  on  in  the  face 
of  a  sagacious  and  watchful  foe.  It  required  a 
union  of  important  qualities  to  enable  one  to  per- 
form the  duty  successfully.  Cook  was  selected 
on  the  occasion,  and  entered  upon  the  labor  with 
accustomed  resolution  and  skill.  He  carried  on 
his  operations  in  the  night,  and  for  some  time  was 
not  perceived.  At  last  he  was  discovered,  and  a 
large  number  of  boats  sent  to  cut  him  off.  He 
fortunately  became  aware  of  the  attempt  in  season 
to  escape  to  the  island  of  Orleans.  There  was, 
however,  little  time  for  him  to  spare;  since,  just  as 
he  stepped  on  shore,  the  Indians  in  pursuit  entered 
the  stern  of  his  boat,  and  took  possession  of  it. 


3/f 


JAMES  COOK. 


61 


His  task,  however,  was  accomplished,  and  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  laying  before  the  admiral  a  full 
and  accurate  survey  of  the  channel. 

After  the  conquest  of  Quebec,  he  was  appointed 
to  examine  carefully  the  difficult  parts  of  the  river, 
which  was  not  then  familiar  to  the  English.  He 
soon  was  transferred  to  the  Northumberland,  the 
flag  ship  of  the  commodore  at  Halifax,  as  master. 
Notwithstanding  his  success  thus  far,  he  felt  his 
ignorance  of  mathematics,  and  applied  himself  in 
the  midst  of  his  other  labors,  to  the  study  of  Eu- 
clid's Elements  of  Geometry,  and,  having  mastered 
them,  to  astronomy.  He  also  devoted  himself 
more  particularly  to  the  study  of  hydrography,  in 
which  he  soon  had  an  opportunity  of  exhibiting  his 
skill,  by  a  coast-survey  of  Newfoundland,  which 
had  lately  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  English, 
and  which  began  to  be  regarded,  especially  by  its 
governor,  Sir  Hugh  Palliser,  as  of  great  conse- 
quence for  its  fisheries.  It  was  chiefly  from  this 
governor's  recommendation,  that  Cook  was  ap- 
pointed Marine  Surveyor  of  Newfoundland  and 
Labrador ;  and  a  schooner  was  placed  under  his 
command  in  order  to  enable  him  to  perform  his  offi- 
cial duties.  An  account  of  a  solar  eclipse,  observed 
in  Newfoundland,  which  he  transmitted  to  the 
Royal  Society  in  1766,  and  the  longitude  of  the 
place  as  computed  from  it,  gained  him  a  good  deal 
of  credit  for  a  knowledge  of  the  scientific  part  of 
his  profession.  During  some  interval  in  his  ser- 
vice on  the  northern  coast  of  North  America,  he 
seems  to  have  been  upon  the  West  India  station, 
where  he  is  mentioned  as  having  been  sent  by  the 
commanding  officer,  as  a  bearer  of  despatches  to 
the  Governor  of  Yucatan. 

VOi~-H~-  *  6 


62 


JAMES  COOK. 


In  the  mean  time,  the  year  1769  was  approach- 
ing, in  which  was  to  take  place  that  transit  of 
Venus,  which  Dr.  Halley  had  urged  upon  the  at- 
tention of  astronomers,  as  of  so  much  consequence 
in  its  possible  relation  to  science.  The  Royal 
Society  were  not  forgetful  of  their  duty :  they  pre- 
sented an  address  to  the  king,  stating  the  advan- 
tages of  making  the  observation  in  another  hemi- 
sphere, and  prayed  his  majesty  to  fit  out  a  vessel, 
and  send  it  to  the  South  Seas  under  their  direction. 

This  request  was  favorably  answered,  and  it 
only  remained  to  select  the  proper  person  to  en- 
trust with  the  chief  command.  It  was  first  offered 
to  Alexander  Dalrymple,  chief  hydrographer  to 
the  admiralty.  This  gentleman  had  already  visited 
the  eastern  archipelago,  had  studied  those  regions 
with  considerable  zeal,  and  had  shown  much  par- 
tiality for  geographical  researches.  He  was  an 
earnest  advocate  also  of  the  existence  of  a  South- 
ern continent,  and  early  applied  to  the  govern- 
ment to  assist  him  in  his  schemes  of  discovery. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  compose  a  code  of  laws 
for  the  republic  which  he  was  sanguine  of  one  day 
founding  in  those  remote  shores.  No  one  was  to 
be  admitted  to  the  republic  who  would  not  sub- 
scribe to  this  code  ;  and  if  any  one  dissented  from 
any  of  the  laws,  he  was  to  forfeit  all  his  property. 
This  code  was  so  odd  in  many  of  its  features,  so 
manifestly  impracticable,  or,  if  not  impracticable, 
so  unwise,  that  it  was  pronounced  "  the  best  pos- 
sible model  of  the  worst  possible  commonwealth." 

Dalrymple  refused  to  undertake  the  duties  re- 
quired, unless  endowed  with  the  amplest  powers 
as  the  commander.  Having  never  held  a  com- 
mission in  the  navy,  the  admiralty,  remembering 


JAMES  COOK. 


63 


the  perplexities  arising  from  a  similar  arrange- 
ment on  a  former  occasion,  declined  to  accede  to 
the  demand.  The  hydrographer  would  not  recede, 
and  the  admiralty  began  to  look  out  for  another 
man.  Cook  was  proposed.  All  who  knew  him 
spoke  of  him  favorably.  He  was  of  steady  cour- 
age, cool,  sagacious,  scientific.  The  offer  was 
made  to  him,  and  he  accepted  it.  He  was  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  lieutenant,  or  as  some  say,  of 
captain,  and  allowed  to  select  his  ship.  Instead 
of  taking  a  frigate,  or  sloop  of  war,  he  showed  his 
good  sense  by  choosing  a  vessel  built  for  the  coal 
trade,  with  whose  sailing  qualities  he  was  ac- 
quainted ;  which  was  better  adapted  to  carrying 
the  requisite  stores ;  was  less  exposed  in  running 
near  the  coasts ;  was  less  affected  by  currents ; 
and,  in  case  of  necessity,  could  be  more  easily  re- 
paired. It  was  of  only  three  hundred  and  sixty 
tons  burden,  and  he  named  it  the  Endeavour.  It 
was  fitted  out  with  great  care  and  liberality,  and, 
for  the  sake  of  better  accomplishing  the  scientific 
purposes  of  the  expedition,  was  furnished  with  a 
corps  of  scientific  men.  Mr.  Charles  Green  was 
named  as  the  astronomer  to  observe  the  transit. 
J)r.  Solander  went  as  naturalist ;  and  Sir  Joseph 
Banks,  afterwards  President  of  the  Royal  Society, 
accompanied  them  for  the  sake  of  increasing  his 
knowledge  of  natural  history.  Possessing  a  large 
fortune,  he  provided  himself  with  draftsmen,  and 
with  every  thing  which  would  conduce  to  success 
in  his  favorite  pursuits,  and  proved  a  very  valua- 
ble accession  to  the  company.  By  the  advice  of 
Captain  Wallis,  then  recently  returned  from  his 
voyage  round  the  world,  the  island  of  Otaheite 
(Tahiti)  was  fixed  upon  as  the  place  for  making 
the  necessarv  observations. 


64 


JAMES  COOK. 


At  length,  on  the  2Gth  of  August,  1768,  they 
sailed  from  Plymouth.  Captain  Cook  was  about 
forty  years  old.  lie  had  risen  to  his  honorable 
and  important  position  by  his  own  genius,  and 
fidelity.  Confidence,  that  "  plant  of  slow  growth," 
had  been  liberally  bestowed,  deserved  as  it  was  by 
a  long  course  of  faithful  effort.  Having  touched 
at  Rio  Janeiro,  where  the  governor,  at  a  loss  to 
account  for  the  expedition  unless  it  were  sent  out 
for  some  hostile  purpose,  regarded  them  with  so 
much  suspicion,  that  they  were  hardly  permitted 
to  step  upon  shore,  they  directed  their  course  to 
Cape  Horn.  Having  landed  upon  Terra  del 
Fuego,  a  party  advanced  incautiously  so  far  into 
the  country  that  the  night  surprised  them,  and 
they  were  in  the  utmost  danger  of  perishing  by 
the  cold.  Dr.  Solan der,  who  had  travelled  much 
in  the  northern  regions  of  Europe,  advised  his 
companions  to  resist  the  approach  of  drowsiness 
which  the  cold  would  be  likely  to  bring  on.  He 
himself  was  among  the  first  to  feel  the  benefits  of 
his  advice :  under  the  influence  of  the  torpor,  he 
could  hardly  be  kept  awake  by  his  associates,  Avho 
dragged  him  along,  and  thus  only  saved  his  life. 
Two  of  Mr.  Banks's  servants  lay  down  to  rest  in 
the  snow,  and  were  found  dead  the  next  morning. 

It  was  a  question  among  navigators  at  that 
time  whether  it  was  best  to  pass  through  the  straits 
of  Magellan,  or  round  Cape  Horn.  Captain  Cook 
took  the  latter  course,  and  passed  round  the  cape 
in  thirty-four  days.  On  the  13th  of  April,  1769, 
the  voyagers  arrived  at  Otaheite,  and  anchored  in 
Maiavai  bay.  Captain  Cook  immediately  took 
measures  to  preserve  the  friendship  of  the  island- 
ers.   He  changed  names  with  the  chief,  which. 


JAMES  TOOK. 


according  to  the  customs  of  the  region,  was  a  kind 
of  treaty  of  friendship.  He  drew  up  a  particular 
code  for  regulating  the  intercourse  of  the  crew 
with  the  natives,  marked  with  much  good  sense, 
and  dictated  by  humanity.  Tents  were  erected 
on  shore  for  the  sick,  and  an  observatory  es- 
tablished for  watching  the  expected  transit.  As 
the  day  approached  (the  3d  of  June),  the  anxiety 
was  great  lest  something  might  occur  to  frustrate 
the  main  purpose  of  the  expedition-  Disturbance 
from  the  natives  could  perhaps  be  avoided,  but  a 
cloudy  or  tempestuous  day  they  could  not  so  easily 
guard  against.  Whatever  precaution  could  be  of 
any  avail  was  carefully  observed.  A  party  was 
sent  to  another  part  of  the  island  considerably  to 
the  westward  of  the  main  observatory,  and  still 
another  sent  to  Eimeo,  an  island  nearly  sixty 
miles  distant,  so  as  to  give  as  much  security  as 
possible.  The  day  came,  and  the  sun  rose  without 
a  cloud.  The  observations  at  all  the  posts  were 
most  satisfactory,  and  contributed  essentially  to 
solve  the  great  problem  which  interested  the 
minds  of  scientific  men.  This  transit  has  been 
truly  said  to  form  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  as- 
tronomy. Besides  these  observations  at  Otaheite, 
it  was  observed  by  the  French  in  California,  by 
the  Danish  at  Wardhus  in  Lapland,  by  the 
Swedes  at  Kajaneborg  in  Finland,  and  by  another 
party  of  the  English  at  Hudson's  Bay.  By  these 
five  observations,  the  sun's  parallax  was  deter- 
mined with  great  exactness. 

We  will  endeavor  to  make  the  importance  of 
this  understood.  Suppose  an  object  to  be  seen 
from  two  ends  of  a  strait  line,  the  angle  formed  at 
the  object  by  these  two  converging  lines  of  sight, 

YJ^v_LU~  — 0*'  


66 


JAMES  COOK. 


is  called  the  parallax.  "  The  parallax  of  a  celes- 
tial body  is  the  angle  under  which  the  radius  of 
the  earth  would  be  seen  if  viewed  from  the  centre 
of  that  body.  Suppose,  when  the  moon  is  in  the 
horizon  at  the  instant  of  rising  or  setting,  lines  to 
be  drawn  from  her  centre  to  the  spectator  and  to 
the  centre  of  the  earth  ;  these  would  form  a  right- 
angled  triangle  with  the  terrestrial  radius,  which 
is  of  known  length ;  and  as  the  parallax  or  angle 
at  the  moon  can  be  measured,  all  the  angles  and 
one  side  are  given ;  whence  the  distance  of  the 
moon  from  the  centre  of  the  earth  may  be  com- 
puted. The  parallax  of  an  object  may  be  found, 
if  two  observers  under  the  same  meridian,  but  at 
a  very  great  distance  from  one  another,  observe 
its  zenith  distance  on  the  same  day  at  the  time  of 
its  passage  over  the  meridian.  By  such  contem- 
poraneous observations  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
and  at  Berlin,  the  mean  horizontal  parallax  of  the 
moon  was  found  to  be  3,459",  when  the  mean  dis- 
tance of  the  moon  is  about  sixty  times  the  mean 
terrestrial  radius,  or  237,360  miles  nearly."  Al- 
though this  method  was  sufficiently  accurate  for 
the  moon,  it  was  found  not  to  answer  for  the  sun, 
whose  distance  is  so  great  that  the  slightest  error 
in  the  observation  would  lead  to  a  great  error  in 
the  results.  The  transit  of  Venus  supplied  the 
deficiency.  "  If  we  could  imagine  that  the  sun 
and  Venus  had  no  parallax,  the  line  described  by 
the  planet  on  his  disc,  and  the  duration  of  the 
transit,  would  be  the  same  to  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth ;  but  as  the  semidiameter  of  the 
earth  has  a  sensible  magnitude  when  viewed  from 
the  centre  of  the  sun,  the  line  described  by  the 
planet  in  its  passage  over  his  disc  appears  to  be 


JAMES  COOK. 


G7 


nearer  to  his  centre  or  farther  from  it,  according 
to  the  position  of  the  observer ;  so  that  the  dura- 
tion of  the  transit  varies  with  the  different  points 
of  the  earth's  surface  at  which  it  is  observed. 
This  difference  of  time,  being  entirely  the  effect 
of  parallax,  furnishes  the  means  of  computing  it 
from  the  known  motion  of  the  earth  and  Venus, 
by  the  same  method  as  for  the  eclipses  of  the 
sun."  * 

The  transit  which  Cook  was  sent  out  to  observe, 
lasted  at  Otaheite  six  hours ;  and  the  difference 
between  that  and  the  duration  at  Wardhus,  in 
Lapland,  was  eight  minutes.  From  this  and  some 
other  observations,  the  sun's  horizontal  parallax 
was  found  to  be  S"577,  and  the  distance  of  the 
sun  from  the  earth,  about  ninety-five  millions 
of  miles.  Can  it  soon  cease  to  be  a  matter  of 
astonishment  to  the  unlearned,  that  by  merely 
knowing  the  fact  that  the  passage  of  a  little  planet, 
in  appearance  simply  a  black  speck,  across  the 
face  of  the  sun,  appeared  to  an  observer  in  one 
hemisphere  eight  minutes  longer  than  it  did  to  an 
observer  in  another  hemisphere,  we  can  tell  the 
distance  of  the  sun  from  the  earth  in  miles,  and 
compute  the  dimensions  of  the  solar  system  ? 

During  his  stay  at  Otaheite,  Cook  won  the  con- 
fidence of  the  natives,  and  was  enabled  to  learn 
much  of  their  customs  and  manners.  After  hav- 
ing completed  his  observations,  he  circumnavi- 
gated the  island,  and  visited  many  others  in  the 
vicinity.  A  native  of  high  rank  and  considera- 
ble intelligence,  named  Tupia,  wished  to  accom- 
pany the  English.    His  request  was  readily  grant- 


*  Mrs.  Somerville.  The  Connection  of  the  Physical 
Sciences. 

3  '3 


68 


JAMES  COOK. 


ed,  and  lie  proved  of  much  service.  The  group 
of  islands  was  named  bj  Captain  Cook,  the  Society 
Islands,  which  name  they  have  ever  since  re- 
tained. 

Sailing  thence,  they  made  land  again  on  the 
6th  of  October,  and  soon  concluded  that  it  must 
be  New  Zealand.  In  exploring  its  shores,  they 
discovered  a  secure  and  capacious  harbor,  which 
they  named  Queen  Charlotte's  Sound.  They  also 
passed  through  the  strait  between  the  northern 
and  southern  island,  and  thus  determined  that  this 
land  was  not,  as  formerly  supposed,  a  part  of  a 
southern  continent.  To  this  strait,  geographers 
have  very  properly  given  the  name  of  the  naviga- 
tor who  discovered  it,  and  who  afterwards  circum- 
navigated both  the  islands.  This  may  be  consid- 
ered his  first  grand  geographical  discovery. 

From  New  Zealand,  the  expedition  proceeded 
to  New  Holland ;  and,  from  the  variety  of  new 
plants  found  by  the  naturalists  in  the  inlet  where 
they  anchored,  the  place  received  the  name  of 
Botany  Bay,  a  name  which,  in  later  times,  is  sug- 
gestive of  any  thing  sooner  than  the  sweet  odors 
of  flowers  and  the  simplicities  of  rural  life.  Along 
the  borders  of  this  new  country  they  proceeded 
for  two  thousand  miles,  exploring  the  coasts,  and 
making  a  variety  of  observations.  They  had 
hardly  met  with  an  accident,  when  one  night  the 
ship  struck  upon  some  coral  rocks  with  so  much 
violence  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  would  go  to  pieces. 
By  throwing  overboard  the  guns  and  such  stores 
as  could  be  spared,  she  was  got  afloat,  and,  to  their 
wonder,  the  leak  did  not  increase.  On  finding  a 
harbor  where  repairs  could  be  made,  they  exam- 
ined the  bottom,  and  found  a  large  piece  of  coral 


JAMES  COOK. 


09 


which  had  broken  off,  and  remained  fixed  in  the 
hole  which  it  had  knocked  in  the  timbers.  But 
for  this  singular  and  providential  circumstance, 
the  ship  would  have  filled  and  sunk  as  soon  as  she 
was  clear  of  the  reef. 

After  repairing,  Cook  sailed  round  the  northern 
part  of  New  Holland,  and  gave  the  name  of  New 
South  Wales  to  the  portion  which  he  had  surveyed. 
Thence  by  way  of  Batavia  and  the  Cape,  he  made 
his  way  home,  and  on  the  12th  of  June,  1771,  af- 
ter an  absence  of  nearly  three  years,  came  to 
anchor  in  the  Downs.  The  latter  part  of  the 
voyage  was  rendered  sad  by  the  loss  of  Dr.  Sol- 
ander,  Mr.  Green,  the  astronomer,  and  many  of 
the  crew.  But  on  the  whole,  it  was  considered 
that  great  results  had  been  arrived  at  by  the  ex- 
pedition, not  only  for  astronomy  and  geography, 
but  incidentally  for  many  other  of  the  natural 
sciences.  The  name  of  the  fortunate  commander 
became  at  once  famous.  One  part  of  his  discov- 
eries led  the  way  to  another  expedition.  New 
Zealand  was  found,  as  before  stated,  not  to  be  the 
extremity  of  a  continent,  but  an  island.  The 
speculations  relative  to  the  great  Terra  Australis 
Incognita  were  at  once  revived  by  the  announce- 
ment. It  was  determined  to  send  out  another 
expedition,  mainly  to  settle  the  question,  if  possi- 
ble, of  the  existence  of  such  a  continent.  The 
king  was  pleased  with  the  proposal,  and  the  Earl 
of  Sandwich,  at  the  head  of  the  Admiralty,  sec- 
onded it  with  much  satisfaction.  Two  ships,  the 
Resolution,  of  four  hundred  and  sixty-two  tons 
burden,  and  the  Adventure,  of  three  hundred  and 
thirty-six,  were  fitted  out,  and  Captain  Cook  ap- 
pointed commander.    The  Adventure  was  com- 


70 


JAMES  COOK. 


manded  by  Captain  Furneaux.  Naturalists  and 
astronomers  were  chosen  to  have  charge  of  the 
scientific  observations,  and  the  ships  were  amply- 
stored  with  every  tiling  that  would  conduce  to  the 
comfort  and  health  of  the  crews,  particularly  with 
those  remedies  which  might  guard  against  the 
peculiar  ills  to  which  the  confinement  of  a  long 
voyage  rendered  them  liable. 

The  second  voyage  was  commenced  on  the 
13th  of  July,  1772,  on  which  day  the  vessels  left 
Plymouth.  After  an  absence  of  more  than  three 
years,  and  having  sailed  more  than  70,000  miles, 
the  adventurous  navigators  cast  anchor  again  at 
Portsmouth,  Capt.  Cook's  ship  having  lost  but 
one  man  by  sickness.  For  the  particulars  of  this 
interesting  voyage,  the  reader  must  look  to  the 
complete  accounts  of  it  which  have  been  published. 
They  did  not  succeed  in  discovering  a  southern 
continent,  but  demonstrated  that  what  had  been 
mistaken  for  such  by  previous  navigators,  espe- 
cially the  French,  had  no  existence.  Their  pro- 
gress south  was  impeded  by  immense  quantities 
of  ice.  Some  of  the  icebergs  were  two  miles  in 
circumference  and  sixty  feet  high,  and  yet  the 
waves  ran  so  high  as  to  break  entirely  over  them. 
They  found,  however,  to  their  surprise,  that  the 
ice  islands  were  fresh,  and  hence  they  derived  from 
them  an  abundant  supply  of  pure  water.  From 
the  time  of  leaving  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  till 
they  reached  New  Zealand,  during  which  they 
had  been  at  sea  one  hundred  and  seventeen  days, 
and  had  sailed  3,660  leagues,  they  did  not  see 
land. 

At  New  Zealand,  Capt.  Cook  endeavored  to  es- 
tablish friendly  relations  with  the  chiefs,  and 


JAMES  COOK. 


71 


placed  on  shore  a  ram  and  ewe,  and  two  goats,  a 
male  and  female.  He  also  stocked  a  garden  with 
the  seeds  of  vegetables  suited  to  the  climate.  In 
December,  1773,  the  voyagers  crossed  the  an- 
tipodes of  London,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  feel- 
ing that  they  were  at  the  farthest  possible  point 
from  home.  They  proceeded  also  to  their  old  sta- 
tion at  Otaheite,  and  subsequently  visited  the 
Friendly  Islands,  as  Capt.  Cook  named  them. 
He  also  discovered  Sandwich  Island,  so  called  by 
Jiim,  after  his  patron,  the  Earl  of  Sandwich.  He 
examined  carefully  some  of  those  clusters  of  is- 
lands in  which  the  Pacific  abounds,  to  one  of 
which  he  gave  the  name  of  New  Hebrides.  An- 
other island  which  he  discovered  he  called  New 
Caledonia,  and  another  still,  which  at  the  time 
was  entirely  uninhabited,  Norfolk  Island.  In  the 
course  of  his  exploration,  he  sailed  far  south  with- 
out meeting  with  land,  and,  from  the  height  and 
great  swell  of  the  waves,  concluded  there  could 
be  no  continent  in  that  direction,  unless  so  near 
the  pole  as  to  make  it  of  no  use  for  the  purposes 
of  emigration  or  commerce.  It  was  left  for  the 
American  Exploring  Expedition,  sixty-six  years 
afterwards,  to  determine  the  question  of  a  south- 
ern continent,  and  mark  out  a  long  outline  of  its 
coast. 

Capt.  Furneaux,  who  commanded  the  Adven- 
'  ture,  was  not  equally  fortunate  with  his  superior. 
On  one  of  the  southern  cruises  the  vessels  parted 
company,  and  did  not  meet  again  during  the  voy- 
age, although  they  reached  England  within  a  day 
of  each  other.  Many  men  were  lost  from  sick- 
ness on  board  the  Adventure ;  and,  what  was  more 
melancholy,  a  midshipman  and  nine  men  were 


S3*- 


72 


JAMES  COOK. 


surprised  by  the  savages  at  New  Zealand,  and  in- 
humanly destroyed.  Capt.  Furneaux,  in  the 
course  of  his  voyage,  partially  explored  Van  Die- 
man's  land,  and  decided,  as  he  thought  satisfacto- 
rily, that  it  formed  a  part  of  New  Holland. 

This  expedition  was  thought  to  have  been 
remarkably  successful,  and  the  success  was  as- 
cribed, in  a  great  measure,  to  the  prudence,  good 
judgment,  and  resolution  of  the  commander.  No 
previous  expedition  could  boast  of  half  the  success, 
or  half  the  security.  It  was  a  great  thing,  by 
care  in  preserving  the  health  of  the  crew,  to  take 
away  the  anxiety  with  which  the  great  mortality 
of  preceding  maritime  expeditions  had  invested 
those  voyages.  Cook  was  elected  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society,  and  on  the  evening  when  he  was 
first  present,  "  a  paper  was  read  containing  an  ac- 
count of  the  method  he  had  taken  to  preserve  the 
health  of  his  crew  during  the  long  voyage."  He 
was  also  rewarded,  by  having  bestowed  upon  him 
the  Copley  gold  medal,  which  was  annually  given 
to  the  author  of  the  best  experimental  paper. 
This  medal  was  not  conferred,  however,  till  he 
had  sailed  on  his  third  and  last  voyage,  and  he 
never  received  tidings  of  the  honor.  The  govern- 
ment bestowed  upon  him  more  substantial  proofs 
of  the  satisfaction  with  which  his  efforts  were  re- 
garded. He  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Post  Cap- 
tain, and  appointed  one  of  the  captains  of  the 
Greenwich  hospital.  By  his  second  voyage,  the 
question  of  the  Southern  continent  was  put  to  rest 
for  a  time  ;  but  the  maritime  energy  of  the  British 
nation,  proverbial  for  its  ceaseless  activity,  only 
revived  more  directly  the  question,  which  had  fre- 
quently been  agitated,  of  a  north-west  passage. 


3f/ 


JAMES  COOK. 


7.3 


A  reward  of  £20,000  was  offered  to  any  one 
who  should  discover  a  passage  to  the  Pacific, 
in  the  direction  of  Hudson's  and  Baffin's  bays. 
In  order  to  obtain  information,  Capt.  Phipps  was 
despatched  towards  the  north,  and  penetrated  to 
within  9|-  degrees  of  the  pole.  The  Admiralty, 
with  Lord  Sandwich  at  their  head,  held  consulta- 
tions with  the  most  experienced  captains  relative 
to  the  proposed  expeditions.  On  one  of  these  oc- 
casions, Capt.  Cook  was  present.  His  hardships 
and  services  on  former  occasions  had  been  so 
many  and  so  prolonged,  that  no  one  thought  of 
forcing  him  to  leave  his  quiet  retreat,  and  again 
brave  the  dangers  of  unknown  seas.  But  the 
conversation  on  the  benefits  which  were  likely  to 
follow  from  the  hoped-for  discoveries,  so  excited 
his  old  ardor,  that  he  lost  no  time  in  offering  his 
services  as  commander  in  this  new  field  of  peril 
and  duty.  They  were  readily  and  gladly  ac- 
cepted. The  act  of  Parliament,  offering  the  re- 
ward of  £20,000,  was  so  amended  as  to  include 
public  ships,  as  well  as  private,  and  to  allow  the 
attempt  to  be  made  from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  as 
well  as  the  Atlantic. 

The  Resolution  and  the  Discovery  were  the 
two  ships  fitted  out  on  this  occasion,  the  latter  of 
which  was  commanded  by  Capt.  Edward  Clarke. 
Mr.  Bayley,  the  astronomer,  and  Mr.  Anderson, 
the  naturalist,  who  had  accompanied  Capt.  Cook 
on  his  former  voyage,  were  selected  to  go  with 
him  again.  Omai,  a  native  of  the  Society  Islands, 
who  had  accompanied  Capt.  Furneaux  to  England, 
was  sent  back  loaded  with  gifts,  and  with  what- 
ever might  tend  to  the  improvement  of  the  natives 
of  his  island.  On  the  12th  of  July,  1776,  the  ex- 
_XOi--ft — — ■  1 


74 


JAMES  COOK. 


pedition  sailed  from  Plymouth.  At  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  they  took  on  board  a  large  freight  of 
live  stock  for  the  supply  of  the  islands  in  the 
South  Seas.  Among  them  were  horses,  cows, 
sheep,  pigs,  and  goats.  Sailing  from  the  Cape, 
and  passing  the  islands  which  Cook  named  Prince 
Edward's,  they  came  to  Kerguelen's  Land,  which 
they  soon  found  to  be  only  an  island  instead  of  a 
continent,  as  its  discoverer  had  supposed.  On 
shore,  they  discovered  a  bottle,  hung  by  a  wire  to 
the  rocks,  in  which  was  a  parchment,  with  an  in- 
scription, declaring  that  Kerguelen  had  visited 
the  shore  in  1772  and  1773.  This  bottle,  Cook 
left  as  it  was,  having  added  the  date  of  his  voy- 
age and  the  name  of  his  ships. 

On  '  reaching  New  Zealand,  they  were  much 
surprised  at  the  shyness  of  the  natives.  It  was 
soon  explained.  The  natives,  seeing  Omai,  who 
was  on  board  the  Adventure  at  the  time  of  the 
massacre  to  which  we  have  referred,  supposed 
that  Cook  had  returned  to  take  vengeance.  With 
singular  and  wise  forbearance,  he  signified  to 
them  that  his  purposes  were  friendly,  and  left 
with  them,  at  his  departure,  some  pigs  and  goats. 
At  one  of  the  islands  which  they  afterwards  vis- 
ited, Omai  found  three  of  his  countrymen,  whose 
brief  history  indicates,  perhaps,  the  manner  in 
which  many  of  those  small  islands  have  been  peo- 
pled. A  party  of  about  twenty  had  started  in  a 
canoe,  to  pass  from  one  island  to  another  near  it, 
when  they  were  overtaken  by  a  tempest  and 
driven  out  to  sea.  Without  any  thing  to  eat  or 
drink,  their  numbers  soon  diminished,  and  finally 
the  canoe  was  overset  and  all  but  four  perished. 
These  clung  to  the  sides  of  the  frail  bark  and 


JAMES  COOK. 


75 


were  finally  rescued,  having  been  driven  by  the 
tempest  six  hundred  miles.  At  Omai's  request, 
Capt.  Cook  offered  to  carry  them  back ;  but  they 
declined  to  go.  Their  friends  had  nearly  all  per- 
ished before  their  eyes,  in  the  storm,  and  there 
were  few  inducements  for  them  to  return.  Omai 
was  settled  at  the  island  chosen  for  him,  a,  house 
erected  for  his  dwelling,  by  the  ship's  carpenters, 
and  his  treasure  of  European  manufacture  landed. 
He  is  said  to  have  conducted  himself  well,  and 
died  a  natural  death  about  two  years  afterwards. 

On  the  8th  of  December,  the  voyagers  lost 
sight  of  the  Society  Islands,  and,  sailing  north- 
ward, on  the  18th  of  January,  1778,  discovered 
an  island  of  considerable  size,  and  subsequently 
two  others  in  the  vicinity.  The  natives  were 
struck  with  great  astonishment  at  the  sight  of 
their  unknown  visitants,  and  by  their  actions 
showed  that  they  had  never  before  seen  a  Euro- 
pean. They  regarded  Capt.  Cook  as  a  superior 
being,  and,  when  he  came  on  shore,  fell  on  their 
faces.  It  was  a  matter  of  great  surprise  to  the 
voyagers,  that  the  language  of  the  natives  was 
the  same  as  that  of  the  Society  Islands,  nearly 
three  thousand  miles  distant,  and  of  New  Zealand 
still  farther  off. 

To  this  group,  now  discovered  for  the  first 
time,  Capt.  Cook,  in  compliment  to  his  patron, 
gave  the  name  of  Sandwich  Islands.  Of  all 
lately  discovered  groups,  this  has  become  by  far 
the  most  important  and  most  interesting.  Pos- 
sessing less  fertility  than  many  other  Pacific 
islands,  they  have  become  known  by  their  surpris- 
ing conversion  to  Christianity,  and  their  rapid  ad- 
vancement in  civilization,  and  national  impor- 


76 


JAMES  COOK. 


tance.  Their  geographical  position  has  been  one 
cause  of  this,  but  the  most  prejudiced  cannot  help 
acknowledging  that  to  Christianity  they  really  owe 
all  that  they  have  become.  This  alone  has  given 
them  strength  to  resist  the  corruptions  which  the 
wickedness  of  the  whites  has  usually  entailed 
upon  the  savages  who  have  come  into  connection 
with  them.  This  alone  has  given  them  the  intelli- 
gence and  elevation,  which,  in  less  than  seventy 
years  from  their  discovery,  has  assigned  them  an 
established  position  among  the  civilized  nations 
of  the  earth.  Commerce  certainly  has  not  done 
it.  —  such  an  effect  has  never  been  found  else- 
where to  follow  the  efforts  of  trade  ;  their  natural 
talent  has  not  done  it,  for  in  native  capacity  they 
do  not  exceed  the  inhabitants  of  a  thousand  other 
barbarous  islands  ;  but  the  power  of  the  gospel, 
aiding  and  directing  all  other  energies,  has  been 
the  moving  cause  of  this  singular  and  remarkable 
result.  At  present,  the  amount  of  property  in  the 
whalers  alone  which  annually  visit  their  ports  is 
said  to  be  at  least  3,000,000  of  dollars. 

After  remaining  at  the  islands  ten  days,  and 
carrying  on  a  friendly  barter  in  old  iron,  nails, 
and  other  articles  of  considerable  value  to  the 
natives,  which  were  given  for  provisions,  Capt. 
Cook  sailed  for  the  American  coast.  This  he 
reached  without  difficulty,  and  entered  the  deep 
harbor  of  Nootka  Sound.  On  the  first  night,  he 
anchored  in  water  nearly  five  hundred  feet  deep, 
and  subsequently  found  the  shore  so  bold  that 
his  ships  were  fastened  to  the  trees  by  ropes. 
It  is  in  this  part  of  the  voyage,  that  the  name  of 
the  celebrated  traveller,  Ledyard,  appears  in  con- 
nection with  that  of  the  more  celebrated  naviga- 


JAMES  COOK. 


77 


tor.  Born  in  Connecticut,  and  educated  in  part 
at  Dartmouth  college,  after  a  variety  of  adven- 
tures, Ledyard  had  found  his  way  to  England, 
and  embarked  in  the  expedition  with  Cook,  as 
corporal  of  the  marines. 

From  Nootka  Sound,  where  the  natives  showed 
evidently  that  they  had  come  in  contact  with  Eu- 
ropeans,* the  expedition  made  its  way  towards 
Behring's  Straits,  which  they  found  to  extend  far- 
ther east  than  delineated  in  the  maps  of  the  time. 
In  passing  through  the  straits,  both  shores  were 
visible  at  the  same  time.  Behring  himself, 
when  he  sailed  through,  saw  but  one  shore,  and 
was  not  aware  of  the  extent  of  his  discovery. 
They  advanced  as  far  north  in  the  month  of  Au- 
gust as  the  ice  would  permit  them,  and  Cook 
then  determined  to  return  to  winter  at  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  and  resume  his  exploration  in  the 
following  year. 

On  arriving,  on  their  way  back,  at  the  island 
of  Onalaska,  on  the  north-west  coast,  they  found 
decided  evidences  of  the  presence  of  Europeans. 
The  natives  were  in  possession  of  tobacco,  and 
had  also  several  blue  linen  shirts  and  drawers. 
While  there,  a  young  chief,  attended  by  two  In- 
dians, who  were  supposed  to  be  Asiatics,  brought 
as  a  present  to  Capt.  Cook,  a  salmon  pie.  He 
also  gave  him  to  understand  by  means  of  signs, 
that  there  were  other  white  men  in  the  country 
who  had  come  in  ships  much  larger  than  the  na- 
tive canoes.  It  was  determined  to  find  out  the 
truth  of  these  intimations  ;  but,  as  the  expedition 

*  Two  silver  spoons  were  among  the  articles  obtained 
from  the  natives  by  trade.  They  had  stolen  them  from 
some  Spanish  navigators  four  years  before. 

V&U-4I. — -  7*-- 


7^ 


JAMES  COOK. 


might  be  attended  with  risk  to  one  who  should  un- 
dertake it  alone,  while  yet  the  ships  could  not  wait 
for  the  slower  movements  of  a  large  party,  it  was 
thought  proper  to  send  a  volunteer.  This  volun- 
teer was  Ledyard.  He  immediately  prepared  to 
accompany  the  young  chief.  The  voyage  was 
not  particularly  disagreeable,  excepting  the  last 
part  of  it,  when  he  was  transported  across  an  arm 
of  the  sea  in  a  skin  canoe.  The  canoe  was  made 
after  the  Esquimaux  plan,  covered  at  the  top,  and 
with  two  holes  for  the  rowers ;  their  passenger 
was  carried  by  stowing  him  away  at  the  bottom, 
where  he  was  obliged  to  lie  in  darkness,  in  perfect 
ignorance  where  he  was  going,  and  without  power 
to  extricate  himself  in  case  of  any  accident.  He 
succeeded  in  his  enterprise,  found  out  that  the 
unknown  white  men  were  Russians  in  search  of 
furs,  and  returned  to  the  ship  accompanied  by  three 
of  the  principal  men.  By  the  inspection  of  their 
charts,  Capt.  Cook  was  satisfied  of  the  extent  and 
originality  of  his  discoveries. 

On  returning  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  which 
the  ship  reached  in  November,  Cook  discovered 
Maui  or  Mowee,  which  he  had  not  before  visited, 
and  soon  afterwards,  the  still  larger  island  of 
Owhyhee,  or,  as  it  is  now  written,  Hawaii.  As 
this  was  apparently  of  more  consequence  than 
any  other  island  of  the  group,  Capt.  Cook  spent 
seven  weeks  in  sailing  round  it,  and  surveying  its 
coasts,  and  at  last  came  to  anchor  in  Kealakeakua 
bay,  on  its  western  side.  "  To  our  disappointment 
in  the  expedition  to  the  north,"  says  Capt.  Cook, 
in  the  conclusion  of  his  journal,  which  from  his 
then  impending  fate  has  acquired  a  peculiar  inter- 
est, "  To  this  disappointment  we  owed  our  hav- 


JAMES  COOK. 


79 


ing  it  in  our  power  to  revisit  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  and  to  enrich  our  voyage  with  a  discov- 
ery, which,  though  the  last,  seemed  in  many 
respects  to  be  the  most  important  that  had  hith- 
erto been  made  by  Europeans  throughout  the 
extent  of  the  Pacific  Ocean." 

As  the  vessels  anchored  in  the  harbor,  the 
natives  flocked  to  the  shore  in  prodigious  crowds. 
Three  thousand  canoes,  filled  with  at  least  five 
times  as  many  people,  were  counted  in  the  bay. 
The  intercourse  between  them  and  the  ships  was 
peaceful  and  harmonious.  Cook  visited  the 
shore  with  much  ceremony.  Chiefs,  with  poles  as 
insignia  of  authority,  made  way  for  his  boat 
among  the  canoes,  and  another  set  of  officers  re- 
ceived him  at  the  shore.  "The  people,"  says 
Ledyard,  who  was  present,  —  "  upon  the  adjacent 
hills,  upon  the  houses,  on  the  stone  walls,  and  in 
the  tops  of  the  trees,  hid  their  faces,  while  he 
passed  along  the  opening ;  but  he  had  no  sooner 
passed  them,  than  they  rose  and  followed  him. 
But  if  Cook  happened  to  turn  his  head,  or  look 
behind  him,  they  were  down  again  in  an  instant  and 
up  again  as  soon,  whenever  his  face  was  reverted 
to  some  other  quarter.  This  punctilious  perform- 
ance of  respect  in  so  vast  a  throng,  being  reg- 
ulated solely  by  the  accidental  turn  of  one  man's 
head,  and  the  transition  being  sudden  and  short, 
rendered  it  difficult  even  for  an  individual  to  be 
in  the  proper  attitude.  If  he  lay  prostrate  but  a 
second  too  long,  he  was  pretty  sure  not  to  rise 
again  until  he  had  been  trampled  upon  by  all  be- 
hind him  ;  and  if  he  dared  not  to  prostrate  himself, 
he  would  stumble  over  those  before  him  who  did. 
This  produced  a  great  many  laughable  circum- 

^4 


80 


JAMES  COOK. 


stances;  and,  as  Cook  walked  very  fast  to  get  from 
the  sand  into  the  shades  of  the  town,  it  rendered 
the  matter  still  more  difficult.  At  length,  however, 
they  adopted  a  medium,  that  much  better  answered 
a  running  compliment,  and  did  not  displease  the 
chiefs  ;  this  was  to  go  upon  all  fours,  which  was 
truly  ludicrous  among  at  least  ten  thousand  peo- 
ple." Capt.  Cook  was  thus  conducted  to  the  morai, 
a  sacred  enclosure  into  which  the  people  were  not 
allowed  to  enter.  He  obtained  from  the  chiefs, 
upon  certain  conditions,  a  place  to  erect  an  obser- 
vatory and  fit  up  his  astronomical  instruments. 

For  some  days  a  good  understanding  was  kept 
up  on  both  sides.  Cook  was  invited  to  dine  with 
the  king,  and,  in  return,  exhibited  some  fireworks 
on  shore,  to  the  great  wonder  and  even  terror  of 
the  natives. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  the  respect  of  the 
islanders  for  their  unknown  visitors  began  to  di- 
minish. The  novelty  had  passed  away ;  and  the 
sailors,  by  the  exhibition  of  too  many  vices,  gave 
palpable  evidence  that  they  were  but  men,  and 
men,  too,  not  deserving  of  any  excessive  venera- 
tion. Contests  began  to  occur  between  the  two 
parties:  the  natives  were  thievish;  the  sailors, 
rather  harsh  and  overbearing.  The  good  under- 
standing between  Cook  and  the  king  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  diminished  at  all,  and  the 
great  navigator  appears  not  to  have  been  aware 
that  he  was  essentially  losing  ground  with  the  na- 
tives. Wanting  wood  for  his  vessels,  on  one  oc- 
casion, with  singular  and  for  him  remarkable  dis- 
regard for  the  superstitious  feelings  of  the  natives, 
he  offered  two  iron  hatchets  for  the  fence  which 
surrounded  the  sacred  morai.    The  chiefs  refused 


JAMES  COOK. 


SI 


the  price  in  astonishment.  The  fence  was  then 
taken  by  force,  and  the  hatchets  left,  as  if  with  a 
show  of  justice  ;  but  the  people  were  much  exas- 
perated at  the  sacrilege,  for  the  morai  was  the 
depository  of  the  dead,  a  place  where  the  images 
of  their  gods  were  kept,  and  solemn  ceremonies 
performed. 

After  remaining  in  the  bay  for  nearly  three 
weeks,  recruiting  the  crew,  and  laying  in  a  stock 
of  provisions,  they  prepared  to  sail  on  another 
cruise.  Water  only  was  wanted ;  and,  not  being 
able  to  obtain  any  of  a  good  quality,  they  deter- 
mined to  seek  it  at  some  of  the  adjacent  islands. 
Not  long,  however,  after  the  ship  had  left  the  bay, 
a  violent  storm  came  on,  by  which  one  of  the 
masts  of  the  Resolution  was  so  much  injured  as 
to  render  it  necessary  to  return  immediately  in 
order  to  repair  it.  It  was  evident,  in  sailing  to 
their  anchorage  again,  that  the  feelings  of  the  na- 
tives had  greatly  changed.  Not  a  single  canoe 
greeted  their  second  arrival,  and  the  villages  were 
comparatively  destitute  of  inhabitants.  Provis- 
ions came  in,  but  inferior  in  quantity  and  quality; 
while  a  higher  price  was  demanded,  and  the  na- 
tives, particularly  the  chiefs,  were  desirous  to  get 
knives  and  dirks  in  exchange.  They  became 
bolder  in  their  thieving.  On  one  occasion,  a  na- 
tive snatched  up  the  iron  tongs  and  other  tools  at 
the  forge  of  the  armorer,  Avhile  he  was  at  work, 
and,  rushing  to  the  ship-side,  threw  himself  into 
the  water,  where  he  was  taken  up  by  a  canoe,  and 
safely  conveyed  to  the  shore.  The  party  that  was 
sent  to  regain  the  articles  were  maltreated,  and  re- 
turned unsuccessful.  A  short  time  after  this,  the 
large  cutter  of  the  Discovery  was  stolen  in  the 


82 


JAMES  COOK. 


night.  This  was  so  grave  an  offence  that  it  be- 
came necessary  to  take  immediate  measures  to 
check  the  audacity  of  the  islanders.  The  captains 
of  the  two  ships  concluded,  on  consultation,  that  it 
would  be  best  to  get  possession  of  the  person  of  the 
king,  and  keep  him  prisoner  until  the  boat  should 
be  restored.  This  method  had  been  pursued  by 
Cook  with  success  on  former  occasions.  Capt. 
Clerke,  being  very  low  in  health,  begged  to  be 
excused  from  actively  engaging  in  the  affair,  and 
asked  that  his  duties  might  be  transferred  to  his 
superior,  to  which  Capt.  Cook  assented,  and  im- 
mediately made  provision  for  landing.  Boats  were 
despatched  to  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  to  pre- 
vent communication  from  other  places.  Cook 
went  on  shore  in  his  pinnace  with  a  guard  of  ten 
men,  beside  the  boat's  crew,  while  the  launch  and 
the  small  cutter  accompanied  him. 

Upon  landing,  some  of  the  usual  marks  of  re- 
spect were  manifested  ;  but  various  circumstances 
indicated  a  hostile  state  of  feeling.  The  women 
and  children  had  left  the  town.  Capt.  Cook  him- 
self, although  not  fully  aware  of  the  state  of  feel- 
ing, was  evidently  somewhat  suspicious.  On 
reaching  the  king's  house,  he  endeavored  to  per- 
suade the  friendly  old  man  to  go  with  him  to  the 
ship.  This  the  king  at  last  consented  to  do  ;  but 
the  chiefs,  who  began  to  assemble  in  great  num- 
bers (Ledyard  says  there  were  three  or  four 
hundred  people,  although,  in  passing  through  the 
town,  they  did  not  see  twenty),  when  they  found 
out  what  was  wanted,  held  him  back.  In  the 
mean  time,  one  of  the  boats  stationed  in  the  har- 
bor, seeing  a  canoe  put  off  from  the  shore,  fired  a 
shot  in  order  to  stop  it,  and  unfortunately  killed  a 


JAMES  COOK. 


83 


chief  of  distinction  who  was  on  board.  The  news 
of  this  disaster  was  brought  to  the  crowd,  while 
they  were  in  the  state  of  excitement  occasioned 
by  the  attempt  to  take  the  king,  and  added  great- 
ly to  their  exasperation.  Capt.  Cook  and  the 
guard  were  now  retreating  to  the  boats,  the  king 
still  in  company.  On  approaching  the  water, 
however,  it  became  evident  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  succeed  in  getting  him  on  board.  His 
wife  threw  her  arms  about  his  neck,  and,  with  the 
aid  of  two  chiefs,  compelled  him  to  sit  down. 

While  in  this  situation,  a  chief  with  an  iron 
dagger  was  seen  to  approach,  as  if  with  the  de- 
sign of  stabbing  Cook.  The  Indian  was  pointed 
out  to  him,  and  he  fired  at  him  with  a  blank  car- 
tridge. The  man  looked  at  his  mat  which  was 
cast  about  him,  and  seeing  that  it  was  not  burnt, 
felt  secure  and  rushed  forward  a  second  time, 
when  he  was  shot  down.  We  shall  give  the  re- 
mainder of  the  account  in  the  words  of  Ledyard, 
who  was  present  as  corporal  of  the  marines,  and 
whose  account  is  probably  as  accurate  as  can  be 
obtained :  — 

"  Cook,  perceiving  the  people  determined  to 
oppose  his  design,  and  that  he  should  not  succeed 
without  further  bloodshed,  ordered  the  lieutenant 
of  marines,  Mr.  Phillips,  to  withdraw  his  men  and 
get  them  into  the  boats,  which  were  then  lying 
ready  to  receive  them.  This  was  effected  by  the 
sergeant ;  but  the  instant  they  began  to  retreat, 
Cook  was  hit  with  a  stone,  and  perceiving  the 
man  who  threw  it,  shot  him  dead.  The  officer  in 
the  boats,  observing  the  guard  retreat,  and  hear- 
ing this  third  discharge,  ordered  the  boats  to  fire. 
This  occasioned  the  guards  to  face  about  and  fire, 

3^ 


84 


JAMES  COOK. 


and  the  attack  became  general.  Cook  and  Mr. 
Phillips  were  together  a  few  paces  in  the  rear  of 
the  guard,  and,  perceiving  a  general  fire  without 
orders,  quitted  Teraiobu  [the  king],  and  ran  to 
the  shore  to  put  a  stop  to  it ;  but  not  being  able  to 
make  themselves  heard,  and  being  closely  pressed 
upon  by  the  chiefs,  they  joined  the  guard,  who 
fired  as  they  retreated.  Cook,  having  at  length 
reached  the  margin  of  the  water,  between  the  fire 
of  the  boats,  waved  with  his  hat  for  them  to  cease 
firing  and  come  in  ;  and  while  he  was  doing  this, 
a  chief  from  behind  stabbed  him  with  one  of  our 
iron  daggers,  just  under  the  shoulder-blade,  and  it 
passed  quite  through  his  body.  Cook  fell  with 
his  face  in  the  water,  and  immediately  expired. 
Mr.  Phillips,  not  being  able  any  longer  to  use  his 
fusee,  drew  his  sword,  and,  engaging  the  chief 
whom  he  saw  kill  Cook,  soon  despatched  him. 
His  guard,  in  the  mean  time,  were  all  killed  but 
two,  and  they  had  plunged  into  the  water,  and 
were  swimming  to  the  boats.  *  *  *  He  himself, 
being  wounded,  and  growing  faint  from  loss  of 
blood  and  excessive  action,  plunged  into  the  sea 
with  his  sword  in  his  hand,  and  swam  to  the  boats." 

The  English  accounts  vary  but  little  from  this. 
They  cast  great  blame  upon  the  lieutenant  who 
commanded  the  launch,  for  pushing  off  the  shore, 
instead  of  drawing  in  to  the  assistance  of  the  at- 
tacked party.  By  his  own  account,  he  misunder- 
stood the  signal  of  Cook  in  waving  his  hat.  By 
this  unfortunate  mistake,  however,  the  pinnace 
became  so  crowded,  that  the  marines  were  unable 
to  act  efficiently  for  the  protection  of  their  com- 
rades and  commander.  According  to  the  same 
authority,  Capt.  Cook  expostulated  with  the  na- 


JAMES  COOK. 


85 


tives  for  their  conduct ;  and  when  approaching  the 
pinnace,  and  covering  the  back  of  his  head  with 
his  hand,  to  shield  it  from  the  stones,  was  struck 
with  a  heavy  club,  which  so  nearly  stunned  him 
that  he  fell  into  the  water,  when  he  was  stabbed 
in  the  back  by  another  Indian,  and,  after  strug- 
gling for  some  time  in  the  water,  was  finally  de- 
spatched by  another  blow  from  a  club.  A  part 
of  his  bones  were  finally  recovered,  and  committed 
to  the  deep  with  the  usual  ceremonies  and  honors. 

Thus  unfortunately  perished  one  of  the  most 
sagacious,  enterprising,  and  successful  navigators 
of  his  own.  or  of  any  other  times.  He  was  tem- 
perate, patient  of  toil  and  hardship,  of  cool  and 
determined  courage,  and  great  presence  of  mind, 
of  plain  manners,  and  humane  disposition.  It  is 
possible  that  the  confidence  arising  from  great 
success  rendered  him  for  once  too  little  observant, 
or  too  regardless,  of  the  perils  to  which  he  was 
exposed.  But  his  faults  he  expiated  with  his 
life,  while  his  virtues  have  gained  for  the  whole 
world  a  rich  and  lasting  reward. 

The  expedition,  soon  after  this  melancholy 
event,  sailed  again  for  the  north,  but  did  not  effect 
any  great  discovery.  Capt.  Gierke,  who  had 
thrice  circumnavigated  the  globe,  died  at  Kam- 
schatka.  The  naturalist,  Mr.  Anderson,  had  died 
at  Onalaska  the  year  before.  From  the  north- 
west coast  they  sailed  to  China,  and  reached  home 
after  an  absence  of  four  years  and  nearly  three 
months.  War  had  broken  out  between  England 
and  France  before  they  returned ;  but,  to  the  great 
honor  of  the  latter,  the  cruisers  were  ordered  to 
treat  the  scientific  expedition  as  a  friendly  power. 

In  order  to  have  before  us  at  one  view  the 

V^fcr-Ifr  &^ 


86 


JAMES  COOK. 


merit  of  the  discoveries  of  Capt.  Cook,  it  is  worth 
while  to  recapitulate  .them,  and  to  consider 
how  much  they  have  affected  the  commercial  in- 
terests of  civilized  nations.  He  discovered  New 
Caledonia  and  Norfolk  Island,  New  Georgia  and 
Sandwich  Land,  and  many  smaller  islands  in  the 
Pacific  ;  surveyed  the  Society  Islands,  the 
Friendly  Islands,  and  the  New  Hebrides ;  de- 
termined the  insularity  of  New  Zealand ;  cir- 
cumnavigated the  globe  in  a  high  southern  lati- 
tude, so  as  to  decide  that  no  continent  existed 
north  of  a  certain  parallel ;  explored  the  then 
unknown  eastern  coasts  of  New  Holland  for  two 
thousand  miles ;  determined  the  proximity  of 
Asia  to  America,  which  the  discoverer  of  Behring's 
Straits  did  not  perceive;  and  discovered  (or  re- 
discovered, if  it  be  true  that  a  Spanish  navigator 
had  seen  them  before,  of  which  there  is  some 
slight  evidence)  the  most  important  group  in  the 
Pacific  ;  and,  at  any  rate,  so  brought  the  Sandwich 
Islands  to  the  knowledge  of  the  civilized  world,  as 
to  make  their  value  appreciated.  What  perhaps 
is  quite  as  important  and  quite  as  much  to  his 
honor,  "  his  surveys  afford  the  materials  of  accu- 
rate geography."  He  was  such  a  vigilant  and 
untiring  observer,  and  availed  himself  so  constant- 
ly of  all  the  improvements  suggested  by  science, 
that  his  errors  are  very  few,  and  he  laid  down  the 
configuration  of  the  coasts  with  so  much  correct- 
ness as  to  have  attracted  the  notice,  and  received 
the  willing  praise,  of  the  most  accomplished  sea- 
men who  have  succeeded  him.  It  was  probably 
owing  to  him,  that  an  English  colony  was  estab- 
lished in  New  Holland,  and  possibly,  although  the 
influence  is  more  remote,  that  an  English  settle- 


JAMES  COOK.  87 

ment  has  been  made  in  New  Zealand.  The  fur 
trade  took  its  origin  with  his  last  voyage,  and  his 
intercourse  with  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  abundant  navigation  which 
now  cheers  those  distant  seas.  His  home  was 
upon  the  sea,  and  no  man  has  done  more  to  make 
every  ocean  familiar  to  others. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  little  bay  of  Keala- 
keaua,  in  Hawaii,  the  natives  point  out  a  rock, 
jutting  into  the  water  so  as  to  afford  a  convenient 
landing  place,  as  the  spot  where  Capt.  Cook  fell. 
A  stump  of  a  cocoa-nut  tree  is  near  by,  where 
they  say  he  expired.  The  top  of  the  tree  has 
been  carried  to  England,  and  is  rightfully  treas- 
ured among  the  monuments  of  enterprise  and 
courage  in  the  Museum  of  Greenwich  Hospital. 
On  the  stump,  which  has  been  capped  with  cop- 
per for  its  preservation,  is  an  inscription,  of  which 
the  following  is  a  part :  — 

NEAR  THIS  SPOT 

FELL 

CAPTAIN  JAMES  COOK,  R.  N., 

THE 

RENOWNED  CIRCUMNAVIGATOR, 

WHO 


DISCOVERED  THESE  ISLANDS, 
A.D.  1778. 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


William  Falconer,  one  of  the  most  truthful 
"  poets  of  the  sea,"  was  the  son  of  a  poor  Edin- 
burgh barber.  He  was  born  in  1730.  Two  other 
children,  who  with  himself  made  up  the  family  of 
his  father,  were  deaf  and  dumb.  His  education, 
as  he  himself  said,  was  confined  to  reading,  writ- 
ing, and  a  little  arithmetic ;  but  he  eagerly  grasped 
after  whatever  knowledge  lay  in  his  way.  He 
wras,  however,  early  shut  out  from  even  his  small 
opportunities  for  learning,  by  being  sent  to  sea  on 
board  a  Leith  merchant  ship.  To  this,  he  is  sup- 
posed to  refer  in  a  passage  in  one  of  his  poems. 

"  On  him  fair  Science  dawn'd  in  happier  hour, 
Awakening  into  bloom  young  Fancy's  flower ; 
But  soon  adversity,  with  freezing  blast, 
The  blossom  withcrd,  and  the  dawn  o'ercast, 
Forlorn  of  heart,  and  by  severe  decree, 
Condemn'd  reluctant  to  the  faithless  sea." 

Before  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  he  had 
risen  to  the  rank  of  second  mate  in  the  Britannia, 
a  vessel  en^a^ed  in  the  Levant  trade.  In  one  of 
his  voyages  in  this  vessel,  he  was  shipwrecked 
off  Cape  Colonna,  in  Greece ;  and  it  is  here  that 
he  lays  the  scene  of  "  The  Shipwreck,"  the  poem 
by  which  he  will  long  be  remembered.  In  1757, 
he  was  promoted  to  the  Ramilies  man-of-war; 
and  as  an  opportunity  was  here  afforded  of  im- 
proving his  literary  taste,  he  is  said  to  have  studied 
with  great  assiduity.  Certain  it  is  that  he  gained 
a  very  good  knowledge  of  the  French,  Spanish, 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


89 


and  Italian  languages,  and  learned  something  of 
the  German.  In  the  Ramilies,  he  was  subjected 
to  a  disaster  of  more  magnitude  even  than  his 
former  shipwreck.  While  making  for  Plymouth, 
the "  ship  struck  upon  the  shore  ;  and  of  a  crew  of 
734  men,  only  26  escaped  with  their  lives  ;  among 
these  was  the  poet.  He  had  already  given  some 
evidence  of  poetic  talent,  and,  two  years  after 
this,  in  1762,  he  published  the  Shipwreck,  which 
he  dedicated  to  the  Duke  of  York.  It  was  sub- 
sequently greatly  enlarged  and  improved,  and  has 
taken  rank  among  the  classical  poems  of  England. 
Few  poets  have  had  such  opportunities  for  obser- 
vation of  nautical  life  as  Falconer  enjoyed,  and 
fewer  still  have  had  the  experience  which  would 
enable  them  to  commemorate  so  fearful  a  disaster. 

The  poem  seems  to  be  a  picture  of  real  life. 
The  sights  and  sounds  of  the  sea,  —  the  gentle 
calm  at  sunset,  when  the  ocean 

"  Glows  in  the  west,  a  sea  of  living  gold ! "  — 

the  still  evening,  —  the  silent,  sombre  midnight,  — 
the  stories  and  songs  of  the  sailors,  —  the  call  of 
the  boatswain,  —  the  sudden  rise  of  the  tempest, 
—  the  groaning,  heaving,  straining,  of  the  storm- 
driven  ship,  and  its  final  destruction  upon  the  ro- 
mantic promontory  of  old  Sunium,  —  these  are 
but  a  few  of  the  points  to  which  the  genius  of  the 
poet  directs  the  mind  of  the  reader.  The  scene 
of  the  poem  is  not  among  the  least  happy  circum- 
stances of  the  work.  It  is  laid  in  one  of  the  most 
charming  portions  of  the  shore  of  a  country 
whose  bare  name  is  suggestive  of  almost  all  that 
is  beautiful  or  profound  in  ancient  literature  and 
art,  and  of  much  that  is  exciting  in  the  history  of 
v.or..  u.   8* 


pr 

00  WILLIAM  FALCONER. 

modern  freedom.  "In  all  Attica,"  says  Byron, 
"if  we  except  Athens  itself  and  Marathon,  there 
is  no  scene  more  interesting  than  Cape  Colonna. 
To  the  antiquary  and  artist,  sixteen  columns  [the 
remains  of  an  ancient  temple]  are  an  inexhaust- 
ible source  of  observation  and  design  :  to  the  phi- 
losopher, the  supposed  scene  of  some  of  Plato's 
conversations  will  not  be  unwelcome ;  and  the 
traveller  will  be  struck  with  the  beauty  of  the 
prospect  over  1  isles  that  crown  the  JEgean  deep  ;' 
but  for  an  Englishman,  Colonna  has  yet  an  addi- 
tional interest,  as  the  actual  spot  of  Falconer's 
Shipwreck.  Pallas  and  Plato  are  forgotten  in 
the  recollection  of  Falconer  and  Campbell  — 

1  Here  in  the  dead  of  night,  by  Lonna's  steep, 
The  seaman's  cry  was  heard  along  the  deep.' " 

A  peculiarity  of  this  poem  is,  that,  while  its 
poetic  merits  are  great,  it  is  a  safe  guide  to  prac- 
tical seamen.  It  shows  a  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  art  of  navigation,  and  is  replete  with  di- 
rections which  have  been  approved  by  naval  offi- 
cers of  distinguished  character.  Falconer  was 
himself  a  thorough  seaman.  The  "  Shipwreck," 
in  the  words  of  one  of  his  biographers,  "  is  of 
inestimable  value  to  this  country,  since  it  contains 
within  itself  the  rudiments  of  navigation  ;  if  not 
sufficient  to  form  a  complete  seaman,  it  may  cer- 
tainly be  considered  as  the  grammar  of  his  pro- 
fessional science.  I  have  heard  many  experienced 
officers  declare,  that  the  rules  and  maxims  deliv- 
ered in  this  poem,  for  the  conduct  of  a  ship  in  the 
most  perilous  emergency,  form  the  best,  indeed 
the  only  opinions  which  a  skilful  mariner  should 
adopt."     This  very  characteristic,  which  adds 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


91 


much  to  the  reality  of  the  scene  described,  has 
been  thought  to  detract  a  little  from  the  interest 
with  which  a  landsman  would  read  the  poem. 
To  his  ears,  "  bow-lines  "  and  "  clue-lines,"  "  clue- 
garnets,"  "jears,"  "halliards,"  and  "spilling- 
lines,"  sound  technical  and  barbarous,  while  to  the 
sailor  they  afford  so  many  proofs  of  the  capacity 
of  the  poet,  and  the  truth  of  his  story.  We  shall 
give  a  few  quotations  to  show  the  character  of  the 
poem.  He  thus  introduces  the  doomed  vessel  to 
the  reader :  — 

"  A  ship  from  Egypt,  o'er  the  deep  impell'd 
By  guiding  winds,  her  course  for  Venice  held ; 
Of  famed  Britannia  were  the  gallant  crew, 
And  from  that  isle  her  name  the  vessel  drew. 

****** 
Thrice  had  the  sun,  to  rule  the  varying  year, 
Across  th'  equator  roll'd  his  flaming  sphere, 
Since  last  the  vessel  spread  her  ample  sail 
From  Albion's  coast,  obsequious  to  the  gale. 
She  o'er  the  spacious  flood,  from  shore  to  shore, 
Unwearying,  wafted  her  commercial  store. 
The  richest  ports  of  Afric  she  had  view'd, 
Thence  to  fair  Italy  her  course  pursued  ; 
Had  left  behind  Trinacria's  burning  isle, 
And  visited  the  margin  of  the  Nile. 
And  now  that  winter  deepens  round  the  pole, 
The  circling  voyage  hastens  to  its  goal. 
They,  blind  to  Fate's  inevitable  law, 
No  dark  event  to  blast  their  hopes,  foresaw ; 
But  from  gay  Venice  soon  expect  to  steer 
For  Britain's  coast,  and  dread  no  perils  near." 

The  ship  arrives  at  Candia,  evening  comes  on, 
and  midnight :  — 

"  Deep  midnight  now  involves  the  livid  skies, 
While  infant  breezes  from  the  shore  arise ; 
The  waning  moon,  behind  a  watery  shroud, 
Pale  glimmer'd  o'er  the  long  protracted  cloud ; 


92 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


A  mighty  ring  around  her  silver  throne, 
With  parting  meteors  cross'd  portentous  shone. 

****** 
Now  Morn,  her  lamp  pale  glimmering  on  the  sight, 
Scatter'd  before  her  van  reluctant  Night. 
She  comes  not  in  refulgent  pomp  arrayed, 
But  sternly  frowning,  wrapt  in  sullen  shade. 
Above  incumbent  vapors,  Ida's  height. 
Tremendous  rock!  emerges  on  the  sight. 
North-east  the  guardian  isle  of  Standia  lies, 
And  westward  Freschin's  woody  capes  arise. 
With  winning  postures,  now  the  wanton  sails 
Spread  all  their  snares  to  charm  th'  inconstant  gales ; 
The  swelling  stud-sails  now  their  wings  extend, 
Then  stay-sails  sidelong  to  the  breeze  ascend. 
While  all  to  court  the  wandering  breeze  are  placed ; 
With  yards  now  thwarting,  now  obliquely  braced.1' 

The  ship  at  last  leaves  the  harbor,  and  sails 
away. 

"  The  natives,  Avhile  the  ship  departs  the  land, 
Ashore  with  admiration  gazing  stand. 
Majestically  slow,  before  the  breeze, 
In  silent  pomp  she  marches  on  the  seas ; 
Her  milk-white  bottom  casts  a  softer  gleam, 
While  trembling  through  the  green  translucent  stream. 
The  wales,  that  close  above  in  contrast  shone, 
(Hasp  the  long  fabric  with  a  jetty  zone. 
Britannia,  riding  awful  on  the  prow, 
(ia/.ed  o'er  the  vassal  wave  that  roll'd  below  ; 
Where  'er  she  moved,  the  vassal  waves  were  seen 
To  yield  obsequious,  and  confess  their  queen. 

******* 
High  o'er  the  poop,  the  fluttering  wings  unfurl'd 
Th'  imperial  flag  that  rules  the  watery  world. 
Deep  blushing  armours  all  the  tops  invest, 
And  warlike  trophies  either  quarter  drest; 
Then  tower'd  the  masts  ;  the  canvass  swell'd  on  high  ; 
And  waving  streamers  floated  in  the  sky. 
Thus  the  rich  vessel  moves  in  trim  array, 
Like  some  fair  virgin  on  her  bridal  day.* 
Thus,  like  a  swan  she  cleaves  the  watery  plain ; 
The  pride  and  wonder  of  the  JEgean  main." 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


93 


Their  hopes  of  a  prosperous  voyage  were  soon 
shaken.  The  breeze  freshens  into  a  gale;  the 
clouds  become  blacker  and  blacker ;  the  main- 
sail splits ;  the  crew  are  all  upon  deck,  and  all 
anxious. 

"  His  race  perform'd,  the  sacred  lamp  of  day 
Now  dipt  in  western  clouds  his  parting  ray; 
His  sickling  fires,  half-lost  in  ambient  haze, 
Refract  along  the  dusk  a  crimson  blaze; 
Till  deep  immerged  the  languid  orb  declines, 
And  now  to  cheerless  night  the  sky  resigns ! 
Sad  evening's  hour,  how  different  from  the  past! 
No  flaming  pomp,  no  blushing  glories  cast; 
No  ray  of  friendly  light  is  seen  around; 
The  moon  and  stars  in  hopeless  shade  are  drown'd." 

To  relieve  the  laboring  vessel,  the  guns  are 
thrown  overboard  ;  but  the  relief  is  but  temporary. 
She  springs  a  leak,  all  hands  man  the  pumps,  but 
the  leak  gains  upon  them.  The  mizen-mast  is 
cut  away.  Still  the  storm  swept  them  along,  by 
"  Falconera's  rocky  height,"  and  towards  the  main 
land  of  Greece  itself. 

"  Now,  borne  impetuous  o'er  the  boiling  deeps, 
Her  course  to  Attic  shores  the  vessel  keeps  ; 
The.  pilots,  as  the  waves  behind  her  swell, 
Still  with  the  wheeling  stern  their  force  repel. 

So  they  direct  the  flying  bark  before 
Th'  impelling  floods,  that  lash  her  to  the  shore. 
As  some  benighted  traveller,  through  the  shade, 
Explores  the  devious  path  with  heart  dismay'd; 
While  prowling  savages  behind  him  roar, 
And  yawning  pits  and  quagmires  lurk  before. 

*       =*       #  #   *       #       *  * 
But  now  Athenian  mountains  they  descry, 
And  o'er  the  surge  Colonna  frowns  on  high; 
Beside  the  cape's  projecting  verge  are  placed 
A  range  of  columns,  long  by  time  defaced  ; 


94 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


First  planted  by  devotion  to  sustain, 

In  elder  times,  Tritonia's  sacred  fane. 

Foams  the  wild  beach  below,  with  maddening  rage, 

Where  waves  and  rocks  a  dreadful  combat  wage. 

****** 
And  now,  while  wing'd  with  ruin  from  on  high, 
Through  the  rent  clouds  the  ragged  lightnings  fly, 
A  flash,  quick  glancing  on  the  nerves  of  light, 
Struck  the  pale  helmsman  with  eternal  night. 

****** 
The  vessel,  while  the  dread  event  draws  nigh, 
Seems  more  impatient  o'er  the  waves  to  fly; 
Fate  spurs  her  on ;  thus  issuing  from  afar, 
Advances  to  the  sun  some  blazing  star; 
And,  as  it  feels  th'  attraction's  kindling  force, 
Springs  onward  with  accelerated  course. 
With  mournful  look  the  seamen  eyed  the  strand, 
Where  Death's  inexorable  jaws  expand ; 
Swift  from  their  minds  elapsed  all  dangers  past, 
As,  dumb  with  terror,  they  beheld  the  last. 

****** 
The  genius  of  the  deep,  on  rapid  wing, 
The  black  eventful  moment  seem'd  to  bring; 
The  fatal  sisters  on  the  surge  before, 
Yoked  their  infernal  horses  to  the  prore." 

The  ship  is  near  its  end. 

"  Uplifted  on  the  surge,  to  heaven  she  flies, 
Her  shattered  top  half-buried  in  the  skies, 
Then  headlong  plunging  thunders  on  the  ground, — 
Earth  groans  !  air  trembles !  and  the  deeps  resound. 
Her  giant  bulk  the  dread  concussion  feels, 
And  quivering  with  the  wound,  in  torment  reels. 
So  reels,  convulsed  with  agonizing  throes, 
The  bleeding  bull  beneath  the  murderer's  blows. 
Again  she  plunges :  hark !  a  second  shock 
Tears  her  strong  bottom  on  the  marble  rock.  m 
Down  on  the  vale  of  Death,  with  dismal  cries, 
The  fated  victims  shuddering  roll  their  eyes 
In  wild  despair,  while  yet  another  stroke, 
With  deep  convulsion,  rends  the  solid  oak; 
Till,  like  the  mine,  in  whose  infernal  cell 
The  lurking  demons  of  destruction  dwell, 
At  length  asunder  torn,  her  frame  divides ; 
And  crashing,  spreads  in  ruin  o'er  the  tides." 


WILLIAM  FALCONER. 


95 


If  we  had  not  extended  these  extracts  almost 
too  far  already,  it  would  be  pleasing  to  give  more 
of  the  separate  pictures  of  beauty  in  which  the 
poem  abounds.  Of  the  crew,  but  three  were 
saved,  and  Falconer  was  one  of  them.  His  ge- 
nius has  invested  Cape  Colonna  with  an  interest 
not  its  own,  and  the  wreck  of  the  Britannia  may 
be  remembered  as  long  as  the  destruction  of  the 
Spanish  Armada. 

After  publishing  this  poem,  Falconer,  by  the 
advice  of  the  Duke  of  York  (to  whom,  as  before 
mentioned,  he  had  dedicated  it),  left  the  merchant 
service,  and  entered  the  Royal  George  as  mid- 
shipman. After  this  ship  was  paid  off,  rather 
than  wait  until  his  time  of  service  would  allow 
him  to  become  lieutenant,  he  accepted  the  ap- 
pointment of  purser  on  board  the  Glory  frigate. 
It  was  not  long  before  this  vessel  was  laid  up  in 
ordinary,  and  the  poet  (who  in  the  mean  time  was 
married  to  an  accomplished  lady)  engaged  in  va- 
rious literary  pursuits.  The  most  important  of 
them  was  the  compilation  of  a  Universal  Marine 
Dictionary,  a  work  which  has  been  approved  by 
the  professional  men  of  the  navy,  as  of  great 
utility. 

Falconer  is  said  to  have  been  in  person  slen- 
der and  somewhat  below  the  middling  height,  with 
a  weather-beaten  countenance,  and  an  address 
rather  awkward  and  forbidding.  His  mind  was 
inquisitive  and  keenly  observing.  He  was  prone 
to  controversy  and  satire,  but  full  of  good  humor, 
and,  like  most  of  his  profession,  frank,  generous, 
and  kind.  Having  removed  to  London,  he  seems 
to  have  suffered  from  poverty.  Entering  into  the 
politics  of  the  times,  he  wrote  a  satire  on  Lord 


96  WILLIAM  FALCONER. 

Chatham,  "Wilkes,  and  Churchill,  which  failed. 
In  1768,  Mr.  Murray,  a  bookseller,  proposed  that 
he  should  unite  with  him  as  a  partner  in  business, 
which  it  is  probable  that  he  would  have  done, 
had  he  not  been  appointed  to  the  pursership  of 
the  frigate  Aurora,  bound  to  India.  The  frigate 
was  to  carry  out  three  gentlemen,  as  supervisors 
of  the  affairs  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  he 
was  promised  the  office  of  private  secretary ;  so 
that  his  prospects  seemed  favorable.  The  ship 
sailed  from  England,  Sept.  30,  1769,  touched  at 
the  Cape  as  is  usual,  and  thenceforward  was  never 
heard  of.  She  probably  foundered  in  the  Mo- 
zambique Channel,  and  no  "tuneful  Arion"  was 
left  to  tell  the  melancholy  fate  of  the  lost.  It 
seems  singular  that  he  who  most  eloquently  and 
beautifully  commemorated  the  perils  of  the  sea, 
should  himself  have  been  so  often  subjected  to 
them  ;  and  should,  at  last,  be  mysteriously  gathered 
to  the  profound  and  secret  caverns  of  the  deep,  as 
if  the  waves  were  greedy  of  the  whole  of  him  who 
had  so  well  sung  of  their  smiles  and  their  wrath. 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


One  of  the  most  distinguished  names  in  the 
modern  medical  profession  is  that  of  John  Hunt- 
er. He  was  born  at  Kilbride,  in  Scotland,  July  14, 
1728,  the  youngest  of  ten  children.  His  father's 
family  was  respectable,  cultivated  their  own  small 
estate,  and  will  be  long  remembered  for  having 
produced  two  men,  who  at  the  same  time  attained 
the  very  highest  eminence  in  the  same  profession  ; 
William  Hunter,  an  elder  brother  of  John,  having 
been  hardly  less  distinguished  than  the  subject  of 
the  present  notice.  John,  as  the  youngest  child, 
was  unfortunately  brought  up  with  great  indul- 
gence, and  after  the  death  of  his  father,  which 
happened  when  he  was  ten  years  of  age,  exhibited 
the  effects  of  it  in  a  wayward  disposition,  and  an 
aversion  to  any  thing  like  regular  study.  It  is 
said  that  he  was  with  difficulty  taught  the  ele- 
ments of  reading  and  writing  ;  and  the  attempt  to 
teach  him  Latin  was  abandoned  after  a  short  trial, 
with  the  unsatisfactory  assurance  of  an  entire 
want  of  success.  The  time  came,  however,  when 
his  devotion  to  country  amusements  was  necessa- 
rily interrupted,  and  he  was  obliged  to  determine 
what  he  should  do  for  a  living.  His  father's  prop- 
erty was  small,  and  the  greater  part  of  it  had  been 
given  to  the  eldest  son.  John  arrived  at  the  age 
of  nearly  twenty  years,  without  giving  signs  of 
any  peculiar  thoughtfulness,  and  with  no  determi- 
nation as  to  the  future.  His  sister  had  married  a 
carpenter  or  cabinet-maker  in  Glasgow  ;  and  John, 
vXOIri-fT;   9  . 


98 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


seeking  emplo)*nient  for  his  bands  rather  than  his 
head,  became  his  apprentice.  How  long,  under 
favorable  circumstances,  he  would  have  continued 
to  make  chairs  and  tables,  it  is  impossible  to  say ; 
but  the  early  failure  of  his  master  in  business, 
threw  him  out  of  employment.  Very  probably 
he  considered  this  a  great  misfortune,  but  it  was 
the  occasion  of  his  subsequent  distinction.  Such 
a  mind  as  his  would  not  indeed,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, have  remained  always  harnessed  to 
mere  mechanical  pursuits  ;  but  he  might  have 
toiled  long  before  coming  to  understand  his  own 
capacities,  had  he  not  been  compelled  to  look  else- 
where for  the  means  of  a  daily  livelihood. 

Sometime  before  this,  William  Hunter,  though 
at  first  destined  by  his  family  for  the  church,  had 
turned  his  attention  to  medicine;  and,  having 
studied  very  successfully  with  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Cullen,  had  gone  to  London  with  a  recommenda- 
tion to  Dr.  James  Douglass.  Though  early  de- 
prived of  this  kind  friend  by  his  death,  he  deter- 
mined, after  some  discouragements  and  difficulties, 
to  give  instruction  in  anatomy  and  surgery.  In 
these  departments  he  obtained  great  reputation, 
and  at  the  time  that  John  was  thrown  out  of  bus- 
iness, was  in  the  height  of  his  fame.  The  success 
of  the  elder  brother  determined  the  younger  to 
apply  to  him  for  assistance.  His  ambition  was 
perhaps  somewhat  awakened  to  escape  from  the 
unsatisfactory  life  he  had  led.  He  therefore  wrote 
to  his  brother,  requesting  permission  to  visit  Lon- 
don, expressing  the  hope  that  he  might  render 
him  some  assistance  in  his  anatomical  pursuits, 
and  at  the  same  time  suggesting,  that  if  his  appli- 
cation was  unsuccessful,  he  might  enter  the  army. 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


99 


The  answer  to  the  letter  was  cordial,  and  con- 
tained an  invitation  to  proceed  immediately  to 
London.  He  accordingly,  set  off  on  horseback, 
and  arrived  in  the  metropolis,  the  scene  of  his  fu- 
ture most  distinguished  labors,  in  September, 
1748. 

The  mind  which  had  so  long  lain  dormant, 
seemed  now  to  awake.  The  scenes  by  which  he 
was  surrounded,  the  lectures  which  he  heard,  the 
conversations  of  his  brother,  and  of  other  intelli- 
gent men,  all  conspired  to  excite  his  interest  in  a 
study,  which  he  pursued  until  his  death,  forty-five 
years  afterwards,  with  ever-increasing  enthusiasm 
and  unrivalled  success. 

He  reached  London  about  a  fortnight  before 
his  brother  began  his  course  of  lectures  ;  and  Doc- 
tor Hunter,  as  we  are  informed,  immediately 
gave  him  an  arm  to  dissect  so  as  to  exhibit  the 
muscles,  at  the  same  time  instructing  him  how  it 
should  be  done.  The  raw  apprentice  succeeded 
beyond  expectation.  Another  arm  was  given 
him  to  be  prepared  in  a  manner  more  delicate 
and  difficult.  The  arteries,  as  well  as  the  muscles, 
were  to  be  preserved  and  exhibited.  This  was 
done  so  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  Dr.  Hunter, 
that  he  assured  his  brother  of  success  as  an  anat- 
omist, and  that  he  should  not  want  employment. 

From  this  time  his  progress  was  most  rapid. 
Mr.  Cheselden,  at  that  time  extremely  distin- 
guished as  a  surgeon,  allowed  him  to  attend  at 
Chelsea  Hospital,  during  the  summer  of  1 749  ;  and 
by  the  next  winter,  he  was  adjudged  by  his 
brother  capable  of  teaching  anatomy.  To  this 
he  devoted  himself,  and  thus  greatly  relieved 
Dr.  Hunter,  whose  increasing  business  left  him 


100 


JOHX  HUNTER. 


very  little  time  to  attend  to  his  pupils.  The  next 
year  he  was  equally  assiduous  in  attendance  upon 
the  hospitals,  and  allowed  no  difficult  operation 
to  escape  his  notice.  In  1753,  he  entered  St. 
Mary's  Hall,  Oxford,  as  a  gentleman  commoner, 
though  with  what  purpose  hardly  appears  evident, 
since  he  did  not  at  all  relax  his  professional  stud- 
ies. During  the  winter  of  1755,  his  brother  ad- 
mitted him  to  a  partnership  in  his  lectures.  He 
devoted  himself  at  this  time,  and  for  years  subse- 
quently, to  the  study  of  human  anatomy,  and  not 
only  acquired  all  that  was  previously  known  of 
the  wonderful  workmanship  of  our  bodies,  but 
carried  his  researches  into  fields  before  unthought 
of.  The  preparations  which  he  made  for  the  uses 
of  the  lecture  room  and  the  museum,  were  objects 
of  general  admiration  at  that  time,  when  such. 
wrorks  were  comparatively  unknown.  At  the  same 
time  he  laid  the  foundation  of  another  branch  of 
knowledge  very  imperfectly  studied  before,  by  the 
diligent  pursuit  of  which  he  had  "  placed  himself, 
for  many  years  before  his  death,  by  universal  ac- 
knowledgment, at  the  head  of  living  anatomists, 
and  was  regarded,  indeed,  as  having  done  more 
for  surgery  and  physiology  than  any  other  inves- 
tigator of  these  branches  that  had  ever  lived." 

This  great  study  has  been  since  called  compar- 
ative anatomy.  Finding  many  things  in  the  hu- 
man body  difficult  to  be  understood,  he  began  to 
compare  the  structure  with  that  of  inferior  ani- 
mals, where  the  similar  parts  were  more  simple. 
It  was  his  object  in  this,  to  comprehend  more 
thoroughly  the  human  economy  and  the  general 
laws  of  life.  To  this  he  was  gradually  led,  not 
knowing  indeed  the  wide  fields  which  were  open- 


Iflf 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


101 


ing  before  him,  but  ever  pursuing  his  way  with 
the  greatest  enthusiasm  mingled  with  the  utmost 
care.  His  time,  his  labor,  his  fortune,  as  fast  as 
he  acquired  any,  were  devoted  to  this  purpose. 
"While  his  income  was  yet  small,  he  purchased  a 
piece  of  ground  at  Brompton,  near  London,  and 
built  a  house  to  contain  his  collection.  The  most 
familiar  animals  were  sometimes  of  the  greatest 
consequence  to  him  in  his  researches,  but  he  also 
was  anxious  to  obtain  those  which  were  rare. 
For  this  purpose  he  purchased  such  foreign  ani- 
mals as  came  in  his  way,  entrusted  them  to 
showmen  to  keep  until  they  died,  and,  by  way  of 
compensation,  received  of  them  in  return  the 
bodies  of  other  animals  which  he  could  not  obtain 
when  living.  In  this  way  there  was  a  constant 
reciprocation  of  favors  between  himself  and  the 
keeper  of  the  wild  beasts  in  the  Tower,  and  also 
the  proprietors  of  other  menageries  in  town. 

By  these  pursuits,  added  to  the  fatigue  of  deliv- 
ering lectures  and  attending  to  private  students, 
his  health  became  so  much  impaired  that  he  was 
advised  to  go  abroad.  Accordingly,  having  re- 
ceived the  appointment  of  surgeon  on  the  staff, 
he  went  with  the  army  to  Beilisle,  and  served 
there  and  in  Portugal  till  the  close  of  the  war  in 
1763.  In  this  school  he  obtained  his  knowledge 
of  gun-shot  wounds,  a  subject  upon  which  he  af- 
terwards published  a  treatise  in  connection  with 
his  remarks  on  the  blood.  On  returning  to  Lon- 
don, he  devoted  himself  again  with  undiminished 
assiduity  to  his  former  pursuits.  He  kept  several 
animals  of  different  kinds  upon  his  premises,  in 
order  the  better  to  observe  their  habits  and  in- 
stincts.   He  was  sometimes  put  in  great  peril  by 

vaLrxrn  ^=~^z^- 


M3.0 


102  JOHN  HUNTER. 

these  creatures,  which  were  not  always  of  the 
gentler  kind.  "  Among  them,"  says  his  biogra- 
pher, "  was  a  small  bull  which  he  had  received 
from  the  queen,  with  which  he  used  to  wrestle  in 
play,  and  entertain  himself  with  its  exertions  in 
its  own  defence.  In  one  of  these  conflicts  the 
bull  overpowered  him  and  got  him  down  ;  and, 
had  not  one  of  the  servants  accidentally  come  by 
and  frightened  the  animal  away,  this  frolic  would 
probably  have  cost  him  his  life."  "  On  another 
occasion,  two  leopards,  that  were  kept  chained  in 
an  out-house,  had  broken  from  their  confinement, 
and  got  into  the  yard  among  some  dogs,  which 
they  immediately  attacked.  The  howling  this 
produced  alarmed  the  whole  neighborhood.  Mr. 
Hunter  ran  into  the  yard  to  see  what  was  the 
matter,  and  found  one  of  them  getting  up  the  wall 
to  make  his  escape,  the  other  surrounded  by  the 
dogs.  He  immediately  laid  hold  of  them  both, 
and  carried  them  back  to  their  den  ;  but  as  soon 
as  they  were  secured,  and  he  had  time  to  reflect 
upon  the  risk  of  his  own  situation,  he  was  so 
much  affected  that  he  was  in  danger  of  fainting." 

His  time  was  now  fully  occupied.  It  is  said  by 
one  of  his  eulogists,  that  he  habitually  worked 
twenty  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  Certainly 
he  allowed  himself  but  four  or  five  hours  for  sleep. 
His  house  was  the  constant  resort  of  students  who 
were  attracted  by  his  fame.  Some  of  these  be- 
came afterwards  much  distinguished  for  their  at- 
tainments and  skill.  None  of  them  perhaps  has 
been  more  widely  known  than  Edward  Jenner, 
the  discoverer  of  the  powers  of  vaccination  as  a 
preventive  of  the  small  pox.  Jenner  remained 
during  his  life  a  friend  and  correspondent  of  Mr. 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


103 


Hunter ;  and  it  is  not  improbable,  as  has  been 
suggested,  that  we  are  in  a  great  degree  indebted 
for  that  most  beneficent  discovery,  to  t lie  "  love 
of  science,  and  the  spirit  of  research,  kept  alive  in 
the  intelligent  pupil  by  the  precepts  and  example 
of  the  great  master." 

In  February,  17G7,  Mr.  Hunter  was  elected  a 
fellow  of  the  Royal  Society.  That  he  might  turn 
this  honor  to  the  greatest  account,  he  prevailed 
on  two  of  the  members,  Dr.  George  Fordyce  and 
Mr.  Cummings  (an  eminent  watchmaker),  to  go 
with  him,  after  the  regular  meetings  of  the  society, 
to  some  cotfee-house,  for  the  purpose  of  more  ex- 
tended philosophical  discussion.  This  voluntary 
meeting  was  soon  joined  by  other  distinguished 
members,  among  whom  were  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
Dr.  Solander,  Dr.  Maskelyne  (the  eminent  math- 
ematician and  astronomer),  and  Mr.  Watt,  of 
Birmingham,  so  celebrated  for  his  discoveries  and 
improvements  connected  with  the  steam  engine. 

During  this  year,  he  was  so  unfortunate  as  to 
break  the  great  tendon  which  extends  from  the 
calf  of  the  leg  to  the  heel,  and  is  called  the  tendo 
Achillis.  While  confined  by  this  accident,  he  de- 
voted his  attention  very  carefully  to  the  subject 
of  broken  tendons ;  so  ready  was  he  to  seize  upon 
circumstances  apparently  adverse,  to  aid  him  in 
discoveries  in  his  favorite  science. 

He  was  married  in  1771,  to  Miss  Horne,  the 
eldest  daughter  of  Mr.  Horne,  the  surgeon  to 
Burgoyne's  regiment  of  light  horse.  But,  al- 
though the  cares  of  his  family  increased,  and  his 
private  practice  as  well  as  public  duties  made 
such  continual  demands  upon  his  time,  yet  he  de- 
voted great  attention  to  his  already  large  collec- 


104 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


tion.  The  best  suite  of  rooms  in  his  house  was 
filled  with  his  preparations;  and  to  pursuits  in 
connection  with  them,  he  regularly  devoted  the 
hours  of  every  morning,  from  sunrise  until  eight 
o'clock,  as  well  as  other  parts  of  the  day  in  which 
he  was  not  otherwise  occupied.  The  facts  in  anat- 
omy and  physiology  which  he  established,  it  would 
not  be  possible  in  this  sketch  to  state ;  but  they 
were  such  as  to  place  him  greatly  in  advance  of  his 
age,  and  to  give  him  undoubtedly  the  first  rank 
among  modern  anatomists,  physiologists,  and  sur- 
geons. 

With  the  extension  of  his  reputation  came  the 
multiplication  of  testimonials  to  his  learning  and 
genius.  In  1776,  he  was  appointed  Surgeon  Ex- 
traordinary to  his  Majesty.  In  1781,  he  was 
chosen  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Science 
and  Belles  Lettres  at  Gottenberg;  and  in  1783, 
member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine  and  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Surgery  at  Paris  ;  and  in  1786, 
was  appointed  deputy  surgeon  general  to  the  army. 
We  mention  these  circumstances  simply  to  show 
the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  con- 
temporaries ;  for  although  such  testimonies  are  but 
secondary  evidences  of  the  real  worth  of  those 
who  receive  them,  yet  they  are  deserving  of  no 
small  consideration  as  coming  from  the  highest 
scientific  talent  which  the  world  possessed. 

As  Mr.  Hunter  spared  no  expense  to  make  as 
complete  as  possible  the  collection  to  which  he 
devoted  so  much  of  his  time,  lavishing  indeed 
upon  it  and  other  professional  pursuits  nearly  all 
his  income,  he  fortunately  felt  it  necessary,  espec- 
ially after  a  severe  illness,  in  1776,  to  leave  it  in 
such  a  state  of  arrangement,  that  his  family,  after 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


105 


his  decease,  should  be  able  to  dispose  of  it  for 
something  like  its  full  value.    He  obtained,  in 
1783,  a  new  and  larger  house  than  the  one  he 
had  previously  occupied;  and  erected  on  an  adja- 
cent lot,  a  large  building  having  a  room  fifty- 
two  feet  long  and  twenty-eight  wide,  with  a  gal- 
lery all  round,  and  lighted  from  the  top.    In  this 
he  placed  his  museum.    His  name  became  so  cel- 
ebrated in  the  department  of  comparative  anato- 
my, that  almost  every  new  animal  brought  to  the 
country  was  shown  to  him,  many  were  given  to 
him,  and  of  those  that  were  for  sale  he  commonly 
had  the  refusal.    A  young  elephant  had  been  pre- 
sented to  the  queen ;  it  died,  and  the  body  was 
handed  over  to  Mr.  Hunter  for  examination. 
Electrical  eels  were  brought  to  England  from 
Surinam.   He  obtained  some  specimens,  and  pub- 
lished an  account  of  them  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions.    Animals  as  different  as  the  whale 
and  the  honey-bee,  the  rhinoceros  and  the  indus- 
trious ant,  occupied  his  attention,  as  parts  of  the 
great  animate  kingdom,  which,  in  some  points, 
resembled  each  other.    It  being  impossible  to  pre- 
serve the  form  and  natural  appearances  of  many 
of  his  specimens,  he  kept  a  draughtsman  in  his 
house,  whose  labors  might  be  always  under  his 
eye,  and  whose  professional  skill  might  be  entirely 
devoted  to  this  one  peculiar  field.    At  the  time 
of  his  death,  the  preparations  amounted  to  more 
than  ten  thousand ;  arranged,  says  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers, so  as  "to  expose  to  view  the  gradation 
of  nature,  from  the  most  simple  state  in  which 
life  is  found  to  exist,  up  to  the  most  perfect  and 
most   complex  of  the    animal   creation  —  man 
himself."    The  extreme  beauty  of  these  prepara- 


106 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


tions  is  said  to  be  apparent  even  to  the  unlearned, 
and  "  their  scientific  value  is  such  as  to  render 
the  collection  one  of  the  most  precious  of  its  kind 
in  the  world.  It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most 
splendid  monuments  of  labor,  skill,  and  munifi- 
cence, ever  raised  by  one  individual." 

In  the  spring  of  1786,  Mr.  Hunter  had  a  severe 
illness,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  seems  never 
to  have  entirely  recovered  ;  he  remained  sub- 
ject to  affections  of  the  heart  upon  any  occasion 
which  excited  his  mind  or  demanded  great  bod- 
ily exertion.  The  peculiarities  of  his  disease, 
which  was  in  ^ome  respects  novel  and  interesting, 
are  very  fully  detailed  by  his  biographer,  the 
symptoms  having  been  described  by  himself  with 
the  greatest  coolness  and  precision.  His  death 
was  very  sudden,  on  the  16th  of  October,  1793. 
After  having,  in  his  private  room,  succeeded  much 
to  his  satisfaction  in  completing  a  delicate  prep- 
aration, he  went  to  St.  George's  Hospital,  according 
to  his  custom.  Here  something  occurred  which 
considerably  irritated  him.  He  endeavored  to 
repress  his  feelings ;  and  going  into  an  adjoining 
room,  as  he  was  turning  to  address  one  of  the 
physicians  present,  he  gave  a  groan,  and  dropped 
down  dead. 

Of  a  noble  and  distinguished  Spanish  painter 
it  was  said  "  he  died  poor  and  famous."  Mr. 
Hunter  was  certainly  famous ;  and  if  he  did  not 
die  poor,  he  neither  died  rich.  He  left  little  be- 
sides his  collection,  which  after  a  time  was  pur- 
chased by  the  British  government  for  £15,000, 
and  subsequently  given,  under  certain  conditions, 
to  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  England. 
His  public  spirit  constantly  encroached  upon  his 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


107 


professional  income  ;  and  though  receiving  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life  several  thousand  pounds 
a  year,  he  had  not  the  disposition  nor  the  faculty 
to  keep  what  he  got.  To  the  poor  and  distressed, 
he  gave  not  only  medical  assistance,  but,  if  neces- 
sary, pecuniary  aid.  A  brief  note  to  his  brother, 
sent  by  the  hands  of  one  who  had  applied  to  him 
for  professional  advice,  illustrates  his  character 
and  practice  :  "  Dear  Brother,  —  The  bearer  is 
desirous  of  having  your  opinion :  I  know  nothing 
of  his  case ;  he  has  got  no  money  and  you  don't 
want  any,  so  that  you  are  well  met." 

To  gratify  his  friends,  he  allowed  a  portrait  of 
himself  to  be  painted  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
It  was  engraved  by  an  artist  of  the  name  of 
Sharp,  and  the  engraving  has  become  of  consider- 
able note  in  the  history  of  the  art.  When  La- 
vater  saw  it,  he  said,  "  This  man  thinks  for  him- 
self." 

John  Hunter  is  a  memorable  example  of  the 
results  of  genius,  aided  by  extreme  diligence  and 
determination,  and  directed  to  one  great  end. 
The  scientific  value  of  his  researches  was  not  un- 
derstood by  his  contemporaries :  perhaps  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say,  they  were  not  fully  compre- 
hended by  himself.  He  did  not  know  how  far  he 
was  in  advance  of  his  own  generation.  For  par- 
ticular knowledge  on  these  points,  the  reader  must 
be  referred  to  the  extended  biographies  of  this 
remarkable  man,  and  to  the  opinions  which  are 
coming  to  be  more  and  more  fully  entertained 
and  expressed  by  later  writers  on  medical  science. 
Of  his  efforts  in  one  department,  a  recent  distin- 
guished writer  has  remarked,  "  He  found  surgery 
a  mere  mechanical  art,  hardly  emancipated  from 


108 


JOHN  HUNTER. 


its  connection  with  the  barbers ;  he  left  it  a  beau- 
tiful science,  inferior  to  none  in  rank  and  interest, 
or  in  the  capability  of  alleviating  human  suffer- 
ings. *  *  *  We  could  well  spare  the  writings  of 
any  surgeon  excepting  Hunter;  they  would  hard- 
ly be  missed;  but  if  his  researches  and  writings 
were  obliterated,  and  their  influence  withdrawn, 
the  very  heart's  blood  of  surgery  would  be  lost.* 
His  mind  was  large,  generous,  and  noble  ;  and 
with  the  virtues,  he  had  some  of  the  faults  of 
which  such  minds  are  capable.  It  should  also  be 
said  that  even  his  profound  and  original  powers 
could  never  rise  entirely  above  the  misfortune  of 
his  neglected  early  education.  He  could  never 
become  a  finished  writer  or  speaker.  Indeed  he 
was  so  sensible  of  his  deficiencies  as  a  lecturer, 
that  he  is  said  to  have  habitually  taken  thirty 
drops  of  laudanum,  before  meeting  his  audience. 
This  was  a  heavy  penalty  to  pay  to  early  neglect, 
but  is  not  without  its  serious  lesson  to  those  who 
would  trust  to  native  genius  while  they  disre- 
garded its  diligent  cultivation.  We  reverence 
the  genius  of  John  Hunter ;  we  should  not  rever- 
ence it  the  less  and  might  delight  in  it  the  more, 
had  it  been  freed  from  the  clogs  of  an  imperfect 
education.  As  it  is,  we  pay  the  most  willing 
tribute  to  the  perseverance  and  effort,  the  single- 
ness of  purpose,  and  unwearied  diligence,  which 
could  triumph  over  so  many  obstacles,  and  make 
such  wide  and  noble  acquisitions. 


*  Win.  Lawrence,  Esq.,  F.K.S. 


NATHAN  SMITH. 


In  no  one  of  the  learned  professions,  perhaps, 
can  so  many  examples  be  found  of  eminence,  at- 
tained after  a  youth  of  unassisted  struggle,  as  in 
that  of  medicine.  The  late  President  Dwight,  of 
Yale  College,  was  in  the  habit  of  giving  the  class 
under  his  charge,  a  brief  sketch  of  the  life  of  Dr. 
Smith,  among  others,  to  encourage  them  in  sur- 
mounting difficulties.  From  an  origin  quite  hum- 
ble, and  circumstances  very  adverse,  he  raised 
himself  to  the  head  of  two  distinguished  medical 
schools  (one  of  which  he  was  the  means  of  found- 
ing), and  to  a  rank  in  his  profession  equal  to  that 
of  any  one  in  New  England. 

Nathan  Smith  was  born  of  respectable  parents, 
in  the  town  of  Rehoboth,  Mass.,  on  the  30th  of 
September,  1762.  His  father  soon  removed  to 
Chester,  Vermont,  where  the  boy  grew  up  with 
the  ordinary  advantages  for  learning  afforded  by 
the  common  country  schools,  while  his  time  was, 
for  the  most  part,  spent  upon  his  father's  farm. 
He  was,  however,  frequently  exposed  to  the  hard- 
ships attendant  upon  all  pioneers  in  a  new  coun- 
try. While  in  pursuit  of  wild  game,  he  was  on 
one  occasion  left  by  his  companions  at  some  dis- 
tance from  home  with  a  small  supply  of  provis- 
ions. His  stock  failed  him  before  they  returned, 
and  a  sudden  thaw  rendered  it  impossible  to 
travel.  He  was  obliged  to  remain  several  days 
with  nothing  to  eat  but  the  flesh  of  the  animals 
he  had  killed.    With  great  difficulty  he  was  at 

_£QI^-H,  X$-7 


t 

110  NATHAN  SMITH. 

last  enabled  to  reach  a  house ;  but  the  result  of 
his  exposure  was  a  severe  fit  of  sickness,  which 
confined  him  for  many  months.  During  the  lat- 
ter years  of  the  revolutionary  war,  he  enlisted  in 
the  Vermont  militia,  and  was  stationed  on  the 
borders  of  the  State  to  repel  the  incursions  of  the 
Indians.  In  this  service  he  endured  the  hard- 
ships common  to  the  early  settlers,  in  their  pecu- 
liarly harassing  warfare  against  a  peculiarly  art- 
ful and  cruel  foe.  When  at  home,  he  was  an  in- 
dustrious laborer  on  the  farm,  except  when  he 
taught  a  school  during  the  winter  months. 

Thus  he  lived  till  he  was  twenty-four  years 
old,  when  an  event  occurred,  unimportant  in  it- 
self, which  led  to  an  entire  change  in  his  life. 
Dr.  Josiah  Goodhue,  the  most  distinguished  sur- 
geon in  the  region,  happened  to  perform  a  surgi- 
cal operation,  at  which  Mr.  Smith  was  present. 
Upon  other  spectators,  this  scene  produced  no 
uncommon  effect ;  but  in  him  it  excited  a  curios- 
ity to  know  more  of  the  structure  of  the  human 
frame,  and  the  laws  of  life.  It  is  generally  true 
that  the  causative  impulses  of  human  actions 
come  from  within  and  not  from  without.  Circum- 
stances merely  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  ge- 
nius to  display  itself.  Why  were  not  the  others 
present  on  the  occasion  referred  to,  incited  to  the 
same  course  of  study  as  Mr.  Smith?  He  soon 
requested  Dr.  Goodhue  to  receive  him  as  a  stu- 
dent ;  but  that  gentleman,  after  inquiring  into  his 
previous  attainments,  and  learning  how  small  they 
were,  firmly  though  kindly  declined  to  accede  to 
his  request.  He  told  him  that  the  profession  of 
medicine  was  low,  that  one  reason  of  it  was  the 
imperfect  education  of  its  practitioners,  and  the 
only  way  to  elevate  it  was  to  encourage  those 


NATHAN  S  31 1  Til. 


Ill 


young  men  alone  to  engage  in  it  who  were  prop- 
erly qualified.  The  Doctor,  however,  kindly  added 
that  he  would  receive  Mr.  Smith  as  a  student,  if 
he  would  put  himself  under  some  qualified  in- 
structor, and  learn  enough  to  enable  him  to  enter 
the  freshman  class  at  Harvard  University. 

This  wise  advice,  which  might  have  discouraged 
any  but  one  determined  from  the  first  to  be  thor- 
ough in  his  profession,  did  not  deter  Mr.  Smith 
from  his  course.  After  studying  a  sufficient  time 
with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whiting,  of  Rockingham,  Vt. 
he  became  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Goodhue,  with  whom  he 
continued  three  years.  A  friendship  was  formed 
between  master  and  pupil  during  this  time, 
founded  upon  mutual  respect,  which  continued 
without  change  till  the  death  of  the  latter. 

After  leaving  the  office  of  Dr.  Goodhue,  Mr. 
Smith,  to  whom  we  must  now  give  the  title  of 
Dr.,  established  himself  as  a  physician  in  Cornish, 
N.  H.  We  are  not  informed  what  was  his  suc- 
cess during  these  his  first  years  of  professional 
life ;  but  presume  it  was  much  the  same  with  that 
of  other  young  men,  who  with  little  aid  from 
friends  are  obliged  to  fight  their  way  to  respecta- 
bility and  distinction,  against  the  ignorance  and 
prejudices  of  those  on  whom  they  have  to  depend 
in  part  for  reputation  and  support.* 

*  We  remember  to  have  heard  an  anecdote  of  Dr.  Smith, 
which  illustrates  his  shrewdness  and  determination.  Not 
long  after  he  established  himself  at  Cornish,  and  while  he 
was  patiently  waiting  for  some  requisition  upon  his  pro- 
fessional services,  a  company  of  young  men,  standing  about 
the  tavern  door,  on  the  evening  of  the  fourth  of  July,  and 
rather  more  than  commonly  excited,  saw  a  poor  lame 
goose  in  a  nock,  feeding  upon  the  green,  —  (when  was  a 
flock  of  geese  ever  seen  in  which  there  was  not  at  least  one 


112 


NATHAN  SMITH. 


After  practising  a  few  years,  feeling  probably 
his  need  of  more  ample  instruction  than  he  had 
received,  he  repaired  to  Harvard  University,  and 
attended  the  lectures  on  medicine  and  surgery ; 
while  he  also  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity 
to  increase  his  knowledge  of  natural  philosophy, 


lame  one?) — and  immediately  determined  to  have  some 
sport  with  the  new  doctor.  Accordingly  they  despatched  a 
messenger  with  all  haste  to  inform  Dr.  Smith,  that  a  pa- 
tient, who  had  unfortunately  broken  his  leg,  was  waiting 
for  him  at  the  tavern.  Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost,  and, 
taking  with  him  all  the  necessary  apparatus,  he  hastened 
to  obey  the  summons.  As  he  drew  near  the  house,  and 
saw  the  preparation  for  his  reception,  his  quick  mind  began 
to  suspect  a  trick  ;  but  he  proceeded  without  hesitation  to 
the  door,  where,  amid  the  ill-concealed  tittering  of  the  crowd, 
he  met  the  inn-keeper,  who,  entering  fully  with  his  customers 
into  the  joke,  informed  him  that  the  patient  was  within. 
Accordingly,  preceded  by  the  tavern-keeper,  and  followed 
by  the  crowd,  ready  to  burst  with  delight  at  the  anticipated 
surprise  and  chagrin  of  the  doctor,  he  entered  the  great 
hall  of  the  house,  where  sure  enough  the  goose  was  ex- 
tended in  all  honor  upon  a  bed.  The  doctor,  without  hes- 
itation or  the  least  show  of  surprise,  advanced  to  the  bed, 
and  having  with  scrupulous  care  examined  the  broken 
limb,  prepared  his  splints,  reduced  the  fracture,  and  bound 
it  up  in  the  most  scientific  manner.  He  then,  with  extreme 
gravity,  directed  the  tavern-keeper  to  pay  particular  atten- 
tion to  the  patient,  on  no  account  to  suffer  him  to  be  moved 
from  the  bed  for  at  least  a  Aveek,  but  to  feed  him  plentiful- 
ly with  Indian  meal  and  water.  He  then  as  gravely  took 
bis  leave.  Thus  far  all  was  pretty  well,  although  matters 
were  a  little  sober  to  be  sure.  The  next  day,  however,  the 
joke  became  really  quite  serious ;  when  a  liberal  bill  for 
professional  services  was  sent  to  the  inn-keeper,  and  to  his 
mortification  he  found  he  was  obliged  to  pay  it.  The  affair 
was  soon  known,  and  the  Doctor  found  himself  suddenly  in 
possession  of  that  reputation  which  in  Yankee  land  always 
attaches  to  one  who  evidently  knows  how  to  take  care  of 
himself.  Men  began  to  respect  him,  and  the  foundation  of 
a  good  practice  was  quite  unexpectedly  laid. 


NATHAN  SMITn. 


113 


and  of  other  subjects  necessary  to  his  profession, 
in  which  his  education  had  been  most  defective. 

After  receiving  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Med- 
icine, he  returned  again  to  resume  his  practice  at 
Cornish,  and,  besides  that,  to  devise  some  method 
of  raising  the  character  of  the  medical  profession 
in  the  part  of  the  country  where  he  lived.  The 
majority  of  physicians,  in  the  larger  part  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  were  uneducated  and 
without  skill.  In  process  of  time,  the  medical 
institution  in  connection  with  Dartmouth  College 
was  planned;  and,  in  1798,  Dr.  Smith  was  ap- 
pointed Professor  of  Medicine.  For  twelve  years 
he  was  the  only  professor  in  the  school.  The 
resolution  required  by  this  undertaking  will  be 
evident  when  it  is  remembered,  that  he  had,  al- 
most literally,  to  create  every  thing  needed  in  the 
institution.  There  was  no  chemical  apparatus, 
no  anatomical  preparations,  no  medical  library, 
no  building  for  lectures  and  operations,  and  no 
funds  for  obtaining  these  requisites.  It  was  not 
till  after  his  exertions  had  made  the  school  a 
blessing  to  the  community,  and  had  gained  for  it 
a  wide  celebrity,  that  the  hand  of  the  legislature 
was  stretched  out  in  charity.  The  number  of  pu- 
pils was  not  at  first  large ;  but,  during  the  last 
years  that  he  remained  at  Hanover,  averaged 
about  sixty. 

After  removing  from  Cornish  to  his  new  situa- 
tion in  connection  with  Dartmouth  College,  he 
resolved  to  fit  himself  still  more  thoroughly  for 
the  responsible  station  which  he  held ;  and  accord- 
ingly he  again  left  his  practice,  and  spent  a  year 
in  Great  Britain,  principally  in  attending  the  lec- 
tures at  Edinburgh,  where  Dr.  Black,  the  cele- 

vj^u-h;  

/D 

a 


in 


NATHAN  SMITH. 


brated  Professor  of  Chemistry,  then  very  aged, 
and  the  younger  Monro,  were  attracting  pupils  by 
their  discoveries  and  their  lectures.  He  also 
spent  some  time  in  the  hospitals  of  London, 
Thus  prepared  with  confidence  in  his  own  attain- 
ments, he  returned  to  diffuse  his  knowledge  where 
it  was  most  needed.  The  influence  of  the  institu- 
tion which  he  was  so  prominent  a  means  of  estab- 
lishing, it  would  be  very  difficult  fully  to  estimate. 
It  has  sent  out  nearly  eight  hundred  physicians, 
who  have  gradually  taken  the  places  of  their  less 
skilful  predecessors,  so  that  the  profession  in 
ISew  Hampshire  and  Vermont  ranks  as  high  for 
attainment  and  general  excellence  as  in  any  part 
of  the  country.  The  school  has  gone  on  with 
general  prosperity,  numbering  among  its  pupils 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  physicians  in  the 
land,  and,  up  to  the  present  time,  keeping  pace 
with  the  rapid  advancement  of  medical  knowl- 
edge, and,  as  far  as  possible,  helping  it  forward. 

In  the  autumn  of  1813,  Dr.  Smith,  having  been 
previously  invited  to  the  medical  institution  just 
established  in  connection  with  Yale  College,  re- 
moved to  New  Haven.  His  sphere  of  labor  was 
perhaps  by  this  change  somewhat  enlarged,  and, 
it  may  be,  rendered  more  agreeable.  His  life  was 
not  less  active  than  before,  since  he  was  frequent- 
ly called  to  the  adjoining  States,  as  well  as  to  the 
distant  parts  of  his  own.  He  also  gave  another 
course  of  lectures  at  Dartmouth,  one  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Vermont,  and  two  courses  at  Bruns- 
wick, Maine.  About  the  middle  of  July,  1828, 
he  was  seized  with  a  severe  illness,  from  which 
he  seemed  never  entirely  to  recover.  During 
the  months  of  autumn  he  remained  in  an  enfeebled 


NATHAN  SMITH. 


115 


state,  although  he  continued  to  perform  the  labo- 
rious duties  of  his  profession.  About  the  first  of 
January,  1829,  lie  was  attacked  with  a  severe 
influenza;  and  although  this  yielded  in  part  to  the 
appropriate  remedies,  yet  on  the  loth  of  the 
month,  there  were  slight  symptoms  of  paralysis. 
These  increased  until  the  26th  of  the  month, 
when  he  died,  in  the  sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  these  brief  sketches  to 
eulogize  the  subjects  of  them,  or  we  might  dwell 
at  greater  length  on  the  character  and  peculiar 
professional  ability  of  Dr.  Smith.  In  many  re- 
spects, his  life  is  full  of  instructive  lessons.  Hav- 
ing decided,  although  at  a  comparatively  late 
age,  on  his  profession,  he  devoted  himself  to  it 
with  untiring  energy.  He  was  determined  to  be 
thorough,  and  spared  neither  pains  nor  expense 
to  make  himself  so.  And  in  this  he  had  no  one 
to  assist  him.  He  was  obliged  almost  entirely  to 
depend  upon  his  own  exertions  for  the  means  of 
education  ;  but,  instead  of  resting  satisfied  on  this 
account  with  imperfect  knowledge,  he  seemed 
only  the  more  anxious  to  obtain  a  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  the  mysteries  of  his  profession, 
and  submitted  the  more  readily  to  a  course  which 
was  at  that  time  almost  unknown  in  New  England. 

It  would  certainly  have  been  according  to  the 
common  course  of  things,  for  the  young  practition- 
er in  an  obscure  country  village,  to  make  the  at- 
tainments of  his  professional  brethren  in  the  im- 
mediate vicinity,  his  standard  of  excellence.  It 
would  not  have  been  thought  singular,  if  he  had 
assiduously  devoted  himself  to  enlarging  his  prac- 
tice, and  gaining  the  most  liberal  pecuniary  re- 
ward.   That  he  did  neither  of  these  things,  but 


1)i 

OH 

116  NATHAN  SMITH. 

loved  science  better  than  the  rewards  of  science, 
and  looked  beyond  the  narrow  horizon  of  his 
neighborhood,  in  order  to  learn  the  discoveries  of 
the  most  distinguished  medical  men  in  the  world, 
and  lind  out  all  that  the  wisest  could  teach,  is  in 
itself  a  mark  of  an  uncommon  understanding. 
He  was  not  mercenary:  he  was  not  narrow 
minded.  By  the  course  he  pursued,  he  certainly 
acquired  less  wealth  than  he  might  otherwise  have 
obtained,  but  he  made  himself  "  the  father  of 
medical  science  in  two  states ;  while  the  influence 
of  his  instructions  was  felt,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  throughout  the  whole  of  New  England." 
"  lie  did  more,"  it  has  been  said,  "  than  any 
other  man  ever  did  to  extend  medical  and  sur- 
gical knowledge  in  the  northern  states." 

One  trait  of  character  which  was  of  great  service 
to  him,  and  which  deserves  to  be  imitated,  was  his 
spirit  of  wise  enterprise.  He  was  not  a  schemer, 
not  in  any  sense  a  visionary ;  but  as  he  was  never 
contented  with  the  knowledge  which  he  possessed, 
so  he  was  ready  to  forward  any  scheme  for  the 
improvement  of  others.  The  active  and  fatiguing 
labors  of  his  profession  did  not  prevent  him  from 
pursuing  those  plans  which  promised  a  wide,  al- 
though distant,  good.  While  he  was  sustaining 
every  department  of  the  medical  college  at  Han- 
over, he  was  engaged  in  an  extensive  medical  and 
surgical  practice,  which  led  him  over  rough  coun- 
try, which  he  traversed,  almost  always  on  horse- 
back, in  all  seasons  and  all  weathers. 

His  mind  was  naturally  strong  and  sagacious, 
and  he  became  not  merely  the  propagator  of  the 
opinions  of  others,  but  the  originator  of  new  meth- 
ods of  treating  dangerous  disorders,  and  of  per- 


NATHAN  SMITH.  117 

forming  difficult  operations  in  surgery.  He  was 
assiduous  in  care  of  the  sick,  and  extremely  be- 
nevolent to  the  poor.  To  all  his  patients  his  at- 
tentions were  delicate,  tender,  and  unwearied. 
"Their  faces  brightened,  and  their  spirits  were 
roused  at  his  approach,  not  more  by  the  relief 
which  they  expected,  than  by  the  kindness  with 
winch  it  was  afforded.  He  watched  at  their  bed- 
side by  day  and  by  night,  administering  to  all 
their  wants,  and  performing  the  offices  of  a  kind 
friend,  as  well  as  of  a  skilful  physician."  That 
lie  died  without  property,  is  of  itself  a  proof  of  the 
zeal  with  which  he  devoted  himself,  regardless  of 
the  cost,  to  enlarging  the  bounds  of  his  favorite 
science.  By  his  acquaintance  with  medical  men, 
as  well  as  by  lectures  .to  the  various  schools  with 
which  he  was  connected,  he  exerted  a  very  con- 
siderable influence  upon  the  literature  of  his  pro- 
fession ;  although,  while  living,  he  was  not  much 
known  as  an  author.  He  will  be  long  remembered 
among  those  who  have  trampled  early  discourage- 
ments under  foot,  and  risen  to  eminence  in  spite 
of  them,  by  the  force  of  their  own  determination  ; 
who,  with  small  means,  created  in  part  by  their 
own  ingenuity  and  energy,  have  made  large  at- 
tainments, and  have  accomplished  great  good. 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 

James  Ferguson  was  born  in  the  year  1710, 
a  few  miles  from  the  village  of  Keith,  in  Banff- 
shire, Scotland.  His  parents,  as  he  informs  us, 
were  in  the  humblest  condition  of  life  (his  father 
being  merely  a  day  laborer),  honest  and  religious. 
It  was  his  father's  practice  to  teach  his  children 
himself  to  read  and  write,  as  they  successively 
reached  what  he  deemed  the  proper  age ;  but 
James  was  too  impatient  to  wait  till  his  regular 
turn  came.  While  his  father  was  teaching  one 
of  his  elder  brothers,  James  was  secretly  occupied 
in  listening  to  what  was  going  on ;  and,  as  soon 
as  he  was  left  alone,  used  to  get  hold  of  the  book 
and  labor  diligently  in  endeavoring  to  master  the 
lesson  which  he  had  thus  gone  over.  Being 
ashamed,  as  he  says,  to  let  his  father  know  in 
what  manner  he  was  engaged,  he  was  accustomed 
to  apply  to  an  old  woman,  who  lived  in  a  neigh- 
boring cottage,  to  solve  his  difficulties.  In  this 
way  lie  actually  learned  to  read  tolerably  well  be- 
fore his  father  had  any  suspicion  that  he  knew 
his  letters.  His  father,  at  last,  very  much  to  his 
surprise,  detected  him,  one  day,  reading  by  him- 
self, and  thus  discovered  his  secret.  When  he 
was  about  seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  a  simple 
incident  occurred,  which  seems  to  have  given  his 
mind  its  first  bias  to  what  became  afterwards  its 
favorite  kind  of  pursuit.  The  roof  of  the  cottage 
having  partly  fallen  in,  his  father,  in  order  to 
raise  it  again,  applied  a  beam  to  it,  resting  on  a 

3b) 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


119 


prop  in  the  manner  of  a  lever,  and  was  thus  en- 
abled, with  comparative  ease,  to  produce  what 
seemed  to  his  son  quite  a  stupendous  effect.  This 
circumstance  set  our  young  philosopher  thinking ; 
and  after  a  while  it  occurred  to  him  that  his  fa- 
ther, in  using  the  beam,  had  applied  his  strength 
to  its  extremity,  and  this,  he  immediately  con- 
cluded, was  an  important  circumstance  in  the  mat- 
ter, lie  proceeded  to  verify  his  notion  by  exper- 
iment ;  and  having  made  several  levers  which  he 
called  bars,  soon  not  only  found  that  he  was  right 
in  his  conjecture,  as  to  the  importance  of  applying 
the  moving  force  at  the  point  most  distant  from 
the  fulcrum,  but  discovered  the  rule  or  law  of  the 
machine  ;  namely,  that  the  effect  of  any  form  or 
weight  made  to  bear  upon  it,  is  always  exactly 
proportioned  to  the  distance  of  the  point  on  which 
it  rests  from  the  fulcrum.  "I  then,"  says  he, 
"thought  that  it  was  a  great  pity,  that,  by  means 
of  this  bar,  a  weight  could  be  raised  but  a  very 
little  way.  On  this,  I  soon  imagined  that  by  pull- 
ing round  a  wheel,  the  weight  might  be  raised  to 
any  height,  by  tying  a  rope  to  the  weight,  and 
winding  a  rope  round  the  axle  of  the  wheel ;  and 
that  the  power  gained  must  be  just  as  great  as  the 
wheel  was  broader  than  the  axle  was  thick  ;  and 
found  it  to  be  exactly  so,  by  hanging  one  weight 
to  a  rope  put  round  the  wheel,  and  another  to  the 
rope  that  coiled  round  the  axle."  The  child  had 
thus,  it  will  be  observed,  actually  discovered  two 
of  the  most  important  elementary  truths  in  me- 
chanics —  the  lever,  and  the  wheel  and  axle  ;  he 
afterwards  hit  upon  others ;  and,  all  the  while,  he 
had  not  only  possessed  neither  book  nor  teacher 
to  assist  him,  but  was  without  any  other  tools  than 


120 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


a  simple  turning  lathe  of  his  lather's,  and  a  little 
knife  wherewith  to  fashion  his  blocks  and  wheels, 
and  the  other  contrivances  which  he  needed  for 
his  experiments.  After  having  made  his  discov- 
eries, however,  he  next,  he  tells  us,  proceeded  to 
write  an  account  of  them ;  thinking  his  little  work, 
which  contained  sketches  of  the  different  machines 
drawn  with  a  pen,  to  be  the  first  treatise  ever 
composed  of  the  sort.  When,  some  time  after,  a 
gentleman  showed  him  the  whole  in  a  printed 
book,  although  he  found  that  he  had  been  antici- 
pated in  his  inventions,  he  was  much  pleased,  as 
he  was  well  entitled  to  be,  on  thus  perceiving  that 
his  unaided  genius  had  already  carried  him  so  far 
into  what  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  region  of 
true  philosophy.  Ferguson  was  employed  in 
some  of  his  early  years  as  a  keeper  of  sheep,  in 
the  employment  of  a  small  farmer  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  his  native  place.  He  was  sent  to  this 
occupation,  he  tells  us,  as  being  of  a  weak  body  ; 
and  while  his  flock  was  feeding  around  him,  he 
used  to  busy  himself  in  making  models  of  mills, 
spinning-wheels,  &c.  during  the  day,  and  in  study- 
ing the  stars  at  night,  like  his  predecessors  of 
Chaldea.  When  a  little  older,  he  went  into  the 
service  of  another  farmer,  a  respectable  man 
called  James  Glashan,  whose  name  well  deserves 
to  be  remembered.  After  the  labors  of  the  day, 
young  Ferguson  used  to  go  at  night  to  the  fields, 
with  a  blanket  about  him,  and  a  lighted  candle, 
and  there,  laying  himself  down  on  his  back,  pur- 
sued for  long  hours  his  observations  on  the  heav- 
enly bodies.  "  I  used  to  stretch,"  says  he,  "  a 
thread  with  small  beads  on  it,  at  arms-length,  be- 
tween my  eye  and  the  stars ;  sliding  the  beads 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


If3f 

121 


upon  it,  till  they  hid  such  and  such  stars  from  my 
eye,  in  order  to  take  their  apparent  distances  from 
one  another ;  and  then  laying  a  thread  down  on 
the  paper,  I  marked  the  stars  thereon  by  the  beads. 
My  master  at  first  laughed  at  me ;  but  when  I 
explained  my  meaning  to  him,  he  encouraged  me 
to  go  on ;  and,  that  I  might  make  fair  copies  in 
the  day  time  of  what  I  had  done  in  the  night,  he 
often  worked  for  me  himself.  I  shall  always  have 
a  respect  for  the  memory  of  that  man." 

Having  been  employed  by  his  master  to  carry 
a  message  to  Mr.  Gilchrist,  the  minister  of  Keith, 
he  took  with  him  the  drawings  he  had  been  mak- 
ing, and  showed  them  to  that  gentleman.  Mr. 
Gilchrist  upon  this  put  a  map  into  his  hands,  and 
having  supplied  him  with  compasses,  ruler,  pens, 
ink,  and  paper,  desired  him  to  take  it  home  with 
him,  and  bring  back  a  copy  of  it.  "  For  this 
pleasant  'employment,"  says  he,  "  my  master 
gave  me  more  time  than  I  could  reasonably  ex- 
pect ;  and  often  took  the  threshing-fiail  out  of  my 
hands,  and  worked  himself,  while  I  sat  by  him  in 
the  barn,  busy  with  my  compasses,  ruler,  and  pen." 
Having  finished  his  map,  Ferguson  carried  it  to 
Mr.  Gilchrist's  ;  and  there  he  met  Mr.  Grant,  of 
Achoynamey,  who  offered  to  take  him  into  his 
house,  and  make  his  butler  give  him  lessons.  "  I 
told  Squire  Grant,"  says  he,  "  that  I  should  re- 
joice to  be  at  his  house,  as  soon  as  the  time  was 
expired  for  which  I  was  engaged  with  my  present 
master.  He  very  politely  offered  to  put  one  in 
my  place,  but  this  I  declined."  When  the  period 
in  question  arrived,  accordingly  he  went  to  Mr. 
Grant's,  being  now  in  his  twentieth  year.  Here 
he  found  both  a  good  friend  and  a  very  extraor- 

Y-^r-iir  4I_ 


122 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


dinary  man,  in  Cantley  the  butler,  who  had  first 
fixed  his  attention,  by  a  sun-dial,  which  he  hap- 
pened to  be  engaged  in  painting,  on  the  village 
school-house,  as  Ferguson  was  passing  along  the 
road,  on  his  second  visit  to  Mr.  Gilchrist.  Dial- 
ing, however,  was  only  one  of  the  many  accom- 
plishments of  this  learned  butler ;  who,  Ferguson 
assures  us,  was  profoundly  conversant  both  with 
arithmetic  and  mathematics,  played  on  every 
known  musical  instrument  except  the  harp,  un- 
derstood  Latin,  French,  and  Greek,  and  could 
also  prescribe  for  diseases.  These  multifarious 
attainments  he  owed  entirely  to  himself  and  to 
the  God  of  nature.  From  this  person,  Ferguson 
received  instructions  in  decimal  fractions  and  al- 
gebra, having  already  made  himself  master  of  vul- 
gar arithmetic,  by  the  assistance  of  books.  Just 
as  he  Mas  about,  however,  to  begin  geometry, 
Cantley  left  his  place  for  another  in  the"  establish- 
ment of  the  Earl  of  Fife,  and  his  pupil  thereupon 
determined  to  return  home  to  his  father.  Cant- 
ley, on  parting  with  him,  had  made  him  a  present 
of  a  copy  of  Gordon's  Geographical  Grammar. 
The  book  contains  a  description  of  an  artificial 
globe,  which  is  not,  however,  illustrated  by  any 
figure.  Nevertheless,  "  from  this  description," 
says  Ferguson,  "  I  made  a  globe  in  three  weeks  at 
my  father's  house,  having  turned  the  ball  thereof 
out  of  a  piece  of  wood  ;  which  ball  I  covered  with 
paper,  and  delineated  a  map  of  the  world  upon  it ; 
made  the  meridian  ring  and  horizon  of  wood,  cov- 
ered them  with  paper,  and  graduated  them ;  and 
was  happy  to  find  that  by  my  globe,  which  was 
the  first  I  ever  saw,  I  could  solve  the  problems." 
For  some  time  after  this,  he  was  very  unfortu- 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


nate.  Finding  that  it  would  not  do  to  remain  idle 
at  home,  he  engaged  in  the  service  of  a  miller  in 
the  neighborhood,  who,  feeling,  probably,  that  he 
could  trust  to  the  honesty  and  capacity  of  his  ser- 
vant, soon  began  to  spend  all  his  own  time  in  the 
ale-house,  and  to  leave  poor  Ferguson  at  home, 
not  only  with  every  thing  to  do,  but  with  very 
frequently  nothing  to  eat.  A  little  oat-meal, 
mixed  with  cold  water,  was  often,  he  tells  us,  all 
he  was  allowed.  Yet  in  this  situation  he  re- 
mained a  year,  and  then  returned  to  his  father's 
house,  very  much  weaker  for  his  want  of  food. 
His  next  master  was  a  Dr.  Young,  who,  having 
induced  him  to  enter  his  service  by  a  promise  to 
instruct  him  in  medicine,  not  only  broke  his  en- 
gagement as  to  this  point,  but  used  him  in  other 
respects  so  tyrannically,  that,  although  engaged  for 
half  a  year,  he  found  he  could  not  remain  beyond 
the  first  quarter ;  at  the  expiration  of  which,  ac- 
cordingly, he  came  away  without  receiving  any 
wages,  having  "  wrought  for  the  last  fortnight," 
says '  he,  "  as  much  as  possible,  with  one  hand, 
and  even  when  I  could  not  lift  the  other  from  my 
side."  This  was  in  consequence  of  a  severe  hurt 
he  had  received,  to  which  the  doctor  was  too  busy 
to  attend,  and  by  which  he  was  confined  to  his 
bed  two  months  after  his  return  home.  Reduced 
as  he  was,  however,  by  exhaustion  and  actual 
pain,  he  could  not  be  idle.  "  In  order,"  says  he, 
*'to  amuse  myself  in  this  low  state,  I  made  a 
wooden  clock,  the  frame  of  which  was  also  of 
wood,  and  it  kept  time  pretty  well.  The  bell  on 
which  the  hammer  struck  the  hours,  was  the  neck 
of  a  broken  bottle."  A  short  time  after  this,  when 
he  had  recovered  his  health,  he  gave  a  still  more 


124 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


extraordinary  proof  of  his  ingenuity,  and  the  fer- 
tility of  his  resources  for  mechanical  invention,  by 
actually  constructing  a  time-piece,  or  watch, 
moved  by  a  spring.  "  Having  then,"  he  remarks, 
"  no  idea  how  any  time-piece  could  go  but  by  a 
weight  and  a  line,  I  wondered  how  a  watch  could 
go  in  all  positions  ;  and  was  sorry  that  I  never 
thought  of  asking  Mr.  Cantley,  who  could  have 
very  easily  informed  me.  But  happening  one 
day  to  see  a  gentleman  ride  by  my  father's  house 
(which  was  close  by  a  public  road),  I  asked  him 
what  o'clock  it  then  was?  He  looked  at  his  watch 
and  told  me.  As  he  did  that  with  so  much  good 
nature,  I  begged  of  him  to  show  me  the  inside  of 
the  watch  ;  and  though  he  was  an  entire  stranger, 
he  immediately  opened  the  watch,  and  put  it  into 
my  hands.  I  saw  the  spring  box,  with  part  of 
the  chain  round  it ;  and  asked  him  what  it  was 
that  made  the  box  turn  round  ?  He  told  me  that 
it  was  turned  round  by  a  steel  spring  within  it. 
Having  then  never  seen  any  other  spring  than 
that  of  my  father's  gun-locks,  I  asked  how  a 
spring  within  a  box  could  turn  the  box  so  often 
round  as  to  wind  all  the  chain  upon  it?  He  an- 
,  swered  that  the  spring  was  long  and  thin ;  that 
one  end  of  it  wras  fastened  to  the  axis  of  the  box  ; 
and  the  other  end  to  the  inside  of  the  box ;  that 
the  axis  was  fixed,  and  the  box  was  loose  upon 
it.  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  yet  thoroughly  un- 
derstand the  matter.  "Well,  my  lad,  says  he, 
"  take  a  long,  thin  piece  of  whalebone ;  hold  one 
end  of  it  fast  between  your  finger  and  thumb,  and 
wind  it  round  your  finger ;  it  will  then  endeavor 
to  unwind  itself;  and  if  you  fix  the  other  end  of 
it  to  the  inside  of  a  small  hoop,  and  leave  it  to  it- 


443 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


125 


self,  it  will  turn  the  hoop  round  and  round,  and 
wing  up  a  thread  tied  to  the  outside  of  the  hoop." 
I  thanked  the  gentleman,  and  told  him  that  I  un- 
derstood the  thing  very  well.  I  then  tried  to 
make  a  watch  with  wooden  wheels,  and  made  the 
spring  of  whalebone  ;  but  found  that  I  could  not 
make  the  wheel  go  when  the  balance  was  put  on  ; 
because  the  teeth  of  the  wheels  were  rather  too 
weak  to  bear  the  force  of  a  spring  sufficient  to 
move  the  balance,  although  the  wheels  would 
run  fast  enough  when  the  balance  was  taken  off*. 
I  enclosed  the  whole  in  a  wooden  case,  very  little 
larger  than  a  breakfast  tea-cup;  but  a  clumsy 
neighbor  one  day  looking  at  my  watch,  happened 
to  let  it  fall,  and,  turning  hastily  about  to  pick  it 
up,  set  his  foot  upon  it,  and  crushed  it  all  to 
pieces  ;  which  so  provoked  my  father,  that  he  was 
almost  ready  to  beat  the  man,  and  discouraged 
me  so  much,  that  I  never  attempted  to  make 
another  such  machine  again,  especially  as  I  was 
thoroughly  convinced  I  could  never  make  one 
that  would  be  of  any  real  use." 

"  What  a  vivid  picture  is  this,"  says  his  biog- 
rapher, in  the  Library  of  Entertaining  Knowledge, 
"  of  an  ingenious  mind  thirsting  for  knowledge  ! 
and  who  is  there,  too,  that  does  not  envy  the  plea- 
sure that  must  have  been  felt  by  the  courteous 
and  intelligent  stranger  by  whom  the  young 
mechanician  was  carried  over  his  first  great  diffi- 
culty, if  he  had  ever  chanced  to  learn  how  greatly 
his  unknown  questioner  had  profited  from  their 
brief  interview  ?  That  stranger  might  probably 
have  read  the  above  narrative,  as  given  to  the 
world  by  Ferguson,  after  the  talents,  which  this 
little  incident  probably  contributed  to  develope, 


126 


JAMES  FERGUSON. 


had  raised  him  from  his  obscurity  to  a  distin- 
guished place  among  the  philosophers  of  his  age  ; 
and  if  he  did  not  know  this,  he  must  have  felt 
that  encouragement  in  well  doing  which  a  benev- 
olent  man  may  always  gather,  either  from  the 
positive  effects  of  acts  of  kindness  upon  others,  or 
their  influence  upon  his  own  heart.  Civility, 
charity,  generosity,  may  sometimes  meet  an  ill 
return,  but  one  person  must  he  benefitted  by  their 
exercise ;  the  kind  heart  has  its  own  abundant 
reward,  whatever  be  the  gratitude  or  ingratitude 
of  others.  The  case  of  Ferguson  shows  that  the 
seed  does  not  always  fall  on  an  unkindly  soil." 

Ferguson  lived  for  many  years  in  Edinburgh, 
engaged  in  drawing  pictures,  and  in  various  as- 
tronomical pursuits.  Among  other  things,  he 
discovered  by  himself  the  cause  of  eclipses,  and 
drew  up  a  scheme  for  showing  the  motions  and 
places  of  the  sun  and  moon  in  the  ecliptic  on 
each  day  of  the  year,  perpetually,  lie  also  made, 
an  orrery,  without  ever  having  seen  the  internal 
construction  of  any  one.  In  the  course  of  his  life 
he  made  eight  orreries,  the  last  six  of  which  were 
all  unlike  each  other.  Having  written  a  proof  of 
a  new  astronomical  truth  which  had  occurred  to 
him,  — namely,  that  the  moon  must  move  always  in 
a  path  concave  to  the  sun,  —  he  showed  his  propo- 
sition and  its  demonstration  to  Mr.  Folkes,  the 
president  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  who 
thereupon  took  him  the  same  evening  to  the  meet- 
ing of  that  learned  body.  This  had  the  effect  of 
bringing  him  immediately  into  notice.  He  soon 
after  published  his  first  work,  "  A  Dissertation 
on  the  Phenomena  of  the  Harvest  Moon,"  with 
the  description  of  a  new  orrery,  having  four 


JAMES  FEUGUSON. 


127 


wheels.  It  was  followed  by  various  other  publi- 
cations, most  of  which  became  very  popular.  In 
1748,  he  began  to  give  public  lectures.  Among 
his  occasional  auditors  was  George  III.,  then  a 
boy.  In  1763,  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society,  the  usual  fees  being  remitted, 
as  had  been  done  in  the  cases  of  Newton  and 
Thomas  Simpson.  He  died  in  1776,  having 
acquired  a  distinguished  reputation  both  at  home 
and  abroad. 


JAMES  WATT. 


The  present  age  is  remarkable  for  the  number 
and  value  of  its  mechanical  inventions.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  the  energies  of  nature 
were  so  entirely  under  the  control  of  man.  Agents 
which,  a  hundred  years  since,  no  one  thought  of 
employing,  are  now  our  mightiest,  most  docile, 
most  constant  servitors.  The  vapor,  which  our 
grandfathers  watched,  rushing  from  the  tea-kettle, 
and  thought  of  only  as  an  indication  of  the  boiling 
water  within,  we  collect,  and  compel  it  to  bear  us 
over  "  iron-highways,  in  wains  fire-winged,"  to 
transport  us  thousands  of  miles,  over  the  waste 
of  waters,  to  turn  for  us  massive  machinery,  to 
perform  the  labor  of  ten  thousand  hands.  The 
electricity  which  we  once  gazed  upon  with  won- 
der and  awe,  as  it  flashed  from  cloud  to  cloud,  or 
played  with  for  our  amusement  in  the  laboratory, 
has  become  our  swiftest,  most  obedient  messenger. 

Among  the  most  distinguished  of  those  who, 
by  their  science  and  skill,  have  taught  us  how  to 
tame  and  to  use  the  unwearied  forces  of  the  ele- 
ments, stands  the  name  of  James  Watt.  He 
was  born  in  Greenock,  Scotland,  January  19th, 
1736.  His  father,  an  ingenious  and  enterprising 
man,  was  a  merchant  and  magistrate  of  the  town, 
and  "  a  zealous  promoter  of  improvements."  He 
died  in  1782,  when  nearly  eighty-four  years  old. 
In  the  public  schools  of  his  native  town,  young 
Watt  received  the  rudiments  of  his  education ; 
but  the  delicacy  of  his  constitution  was  such,  that 


JAMES  WATT. 


129 


he  attended  the  classes  with  difficulty.  He  was, 
however,  very  studious  at  home,  and  began  early 
to  exhibit  a  partiality  for  mechanical  contrivances. 
When  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  he  was  apprenticed 
to  an  optician,  as  he  was  called,  —  a  person  who 
was  "  by  turns  a  cutler  and  a  whitesmith,  a  repairer 
of  fiddles,  and  a  tuner  of  spinets."  With  him  he 
remained  two  years.  In  his  eighteenth  year  he 
went  to  London,  to  place  himself  under  the  tuition 
of  a  mathematical  instrument  maker.  His  health, 
however,  becoming  impaired,  he  was  obliged  to 
leave  the  metropolis  in  a  little  more  than  a 
twelvemonth  ;  but  he  continued,  after  his  return 
home,  to  perfect  himself  in  the  art,  in  which  ho 
manifested  great  proficiency.  He  soon  visited 
Glasgow,  with  the  desire  of  establishing  himself 
there,  but  met  with  opposition  from  some  who 
considered  him  an  intruder  upon  their  privileges. 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  professors  of  the 
college,  appreciating  his  tine  tact  and  ingenuity, 
afforded  him  protection,  and  gave  him  an  apart- 
ment for  carrying  on  his  business  within  their 
precincts,  with  the  title  of  "  Mathematical  Instru- 
ment Maker  to  the  University." 

There  were  at  this  time  connected  with  the 
University,  Adam  Smith,  Robert  Simpson,  Dr. 
Black,  and  Dr.  Dick,  whose  approbation  alone 
would  be  sufficient  to  show  that  the  young  artisan 
had  already  given  decided  proofs  of  skill.  He 
was  at  this  time  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  re- 
mained in  connection  with  the  college  six  years, 
until  1763,  when  he  removed  into  the  town. 

About  the  year  1761  or  1762,  he  began  his  in- 
quiries respecting  the  steam-engine  ;  and  the  idea 
suggested  itself  of  the  possibility  of  applying 


130  .JAMES  WATT. 

steam  with  greater  advantage  than  formerly  to 
the  moving  of  machinery.  A  small  model  was 
constructed,  in  which  an  upright  piston  was  raised 
by  admitting  steam  below  it,  and  forced  down 
again  by  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere.  This 
contrivance  he  soon  abandoned,  and  the  pressure 
of  business  prevented  him  from  immediately  re- 
suming his  investigation. 

As  much  of  Mr.  Watt's  fame  depends  upon  his 
labors  in  connection  with  the  steam-engine,  we 
shall  in  this  place  give  a  connected  and  somewhat 
particular  account  of  his  improvements,  rather 
than  break  up  the  narrative  by  mentioning  other 
events  of  his  life,  which  for  a  time  interrupted  his 
experiments.  The  utility  of  steam,  as  a  moving 
power,  depends  upon  its  immense  expansive  force, 
in  connection  with  the  property  of  immense  and 
sudden  contraction  by  condensation.  A  cubic 
inch  of  water,  at  the  ordinary  pressure  of  the  at- 
mosphere, will  make  a  cubic  foot  of  steam.  "Wa- 
ter above  a  certain  temperature  (at  the  ordinary 
atmospheric  pressure,  212  degrees,  Fahrenheit) 
will  become  steam  ;  and,  on  the  contrary,  steam 
below  a  certain  temperature  will  become  water. 
If,  then,  a  cubic  inch  of  water  be  heated  above  212 
degrees,  a  portion  of  it  will  at  once  expand  to 
about  1,800  times  its  former  dimensions.  But 
steam,  by  being  confined,  may  be  made  to  exert 
this  great  expansive  force  to  the  movement  of 
machinery.  On  the  other  hand,  1,800  cubic 
inches  of  steam,  by  being  suddenly  cooled,  con- 
tracts so  as  to  fill  but  one  cubic  inch  in  the  form 
of  water.  Hence,  if  a  tight  vessel,  say  a  cylinder, 
filled  with  steam,  were  suddenly  cooled,  a  partial 
vacuum  would  be  immediately  formed  by  conden- 


JAMES  WATT. 


131 


sation  ;  and,  if  one  end  of  the  cylinder  were  move- 
able, the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  would  force 
it  in.  The  introduction  of  steam  again,  would 
force  the  moveable  head  of  the  cylinder  back, 
and  thus  a  motion  backwards  and  forwards  could 
be  obtained.  This  was,  in  fact,  nearly  the  earliest 
form  of  the  steam-engine.  To  the  moveable  head 
of  the  cylinder  a  rod  was  attached,  and  this  was 
connected  with  a  lever  which  moved  certain 
pieces  of  machinery. 

The  properties  of  steam,  on  which  its  utility  as 
a  moving  agent  depends,  were  known  to.  a  certain 
extent  for  centuries  before  any  one  thought  of 
applying  them.  This,  indeed,  is  the  history  of 
almost  every  useful  art.  A  discovery  which,  af- 
ter it  is  known,  seems  so  simple  that  every  body 
wonders  he  did  not  see  it,  remains  hid  for  thous- 
ands of  years,  but  at  last  proves  great  enough  to 
immortalize  the  fortunate  inventor.  How  stupid 
men  were,  to  toil  in  copying  books  with  the  pen 
for  centuries,  when,  by  the  aid  of  blocks  of  wood 
or  bits  of  lead,  they  could  have  so  immensely  di- 
minished the  labor  !  In  the  seventeenth  century, 
attention  was  frequently  directed  by  ingenious  ar- 
tists to  the  uses  of  steam  in  performing  simple 
but  laborious  occupations,  such  as  pumping  water. 
At  the  time  when  Mr.  Watt  commenced  his  labors 
on  the  subject,  a  machine  was  in  use,  invented  by 
Thomas  isewcomen,  an  ingenious  mechanic. — 
The  object  of  the  steam,  according  to  his  contri- 
vance, was  simply  to  create  a  vacuum,  into  which 
the  atmospheric  pressure  could  force  a  piston  (to 
be  raised  again  by  a  counterpoise),  and  thus  apply 
a  moving  power,  of  about  fourteen  pounds  to  the 
square  inch.    In  practice,  it  was  found  that  the 


132 


JAMES  WATT. 


power  applied  was  much  less  than  this,  on  account 
of  the  vacuum  being  imperfectly  formed.  The 
steam  in  the  cylinder  was  at  first  condensed  by 
cooling  the  cylinder  itself  with  cold  water.  It 
was  afterwards  accidentally  discovered,  that  the 
same  could  be  better  accomplished,  by  injecting  a 
stream  of  cold  water  into  the  cylinder. 

It  was  still  a  very  imperfect  machine.  Great 
care  and  watchfulness  were  necessary  on  the  part 
of  the  attendant  in  opening  the  different  valves, 
which  he  was  obliged  to  do  fourteen  times  a  min- 
ute, or  risk  the  destruction  of  the  apparatus. 
When  he  opened  the  steam  valve,  he  was  obliged 
to  watch  the  ascent  of  the  piston,  and  at  the  mo- 
ment of  its  reaching  the  proper  height,  close  the 
valve  and  instantly  open  the  injection  pipe. 
When  this  cooled  the  steam  sufficiently,  and  the 
piston  began  to  descend,  the  steam  must  be  let  in 
again  at  a  particular  moment ;  or  the  heavy  pis- 
ton, forced  down  by  the  atmosphere  with  too  great 
rapidity,  would  shake  the  apparatus  to  pieces. 
One  of  the  first  contrivances  to  dispense  with  this 
constant  watchfulness  of  the  attendant,  resulted 
from  the  ingenuity  of  an  idle  boy,  Humphrey 
Potter.  He  added  to  the  machine  (what  he  called 
a  scoggan)  "  a  catch,  that  the  beam  or  lever  al- 
ways opened.  To  scog  is  a  verb,  found  in  cer- 
tain vocabularies  in  the  north  of  England,  imply- 
ing to  skulk  ;  and  this  young  gentleman,  impelled 
by  a  love  of  idleness  or  play  common  to  boy- 
hood, and  having  his  wits  about  him,  after  due 
meditation,  devised  this  contrivance,  by  which  so 
important  an  improvement  was  effected,  and  him- 
self allowed  the  means  of  'scogging'  for  his  own 
diversion."     The  importance  of  the  discovery 


JAMES  WATT. 


133 


may  be  seen  in  the  fact,  that,  while  before,  the 
piston  would  make  but  six  or  eight  strokes  a  min- 
ute, afterwards  it  would  make  fifteen  or  sixteen. 
"Without  dwelling  longer  upon  the  history  of  the 
steam-engine,  we  will  return  to  the  life  of  Watt. 

In  the  winter  of  1763-4,  the  Professor  of  Nat- 
ural Philosophy  at  Glasgow  put  into  Mr.  Watt's 
hands  a  model  of  an  engine  upon  Newcornen's 
plan,  to  be  repaired.  While  at  work  upon  this 
model,  he  perceived  the  immense  loss  of  steam 
from  condensation,  caused  by  the  cold  surface  of 
the  cylinder.  He  determined,  by  experiment, 
that  this  loss  was  "not  less  than  three  or  four 
times  as  much  as  would  fill  the  cylinder  and  work 
the  engine."  In  the  operation  of  the  engine  there 
was  also  a  great  waste  of  heat.  The  cylinder  was 
at  one  moment  heated  so  that  he  could  not  bear 
his  finger  upon  it,  and  must  then  be  cooled  so  as 
to  condense  the  steam ;  and  this  alternate  heating 
and  cooling  took  place  at  every  stroke  of  the  pis- 
ton. In  the  course  of  these  experiments,  he  be- 
came acquainted  with  the  theory  of  latent  heat, 
which  had  been  previously  expounded  by  Dr. 
Black,  but  of  which  he  had  not  heard. 

The  materials  with  which  he  performed  his  ex- 
periments were  of  the  cheapest  kinds.  Apoth- 
ecaries' vials,  a  glass  tube  or  two,  and  a  tea-kettle, 
enabled  him  to  arrive  at  some  very  important 
conclusions.  By  attaching  a  glass  tube  to  the 
nose  of  a  tea-kettle,  he  conducted  the  steam  into  a 
glass  of  water,  and,  by  the  time  the  water  came  to 
the  boiling  temperature,  he  found  its  volume  had 
increased  nearly  a  sixth  part ;  i.  e.,  "  that  one  mea- 
sure of  water,  in  the  form  of  steam,  can  raise  about 
six  measures-  of  water  to  its  own  heat."    In  the 

YOfc.'ii.  12 


2 


134  JAMES  WATT. 

words  of  Dr.  Ure,  that  "  a  cubic  inch  of  water 
would  form  a  cubic  foot  of  ordinary  steam,  or 
1,728  inches;  and  that  the  condensation  of  that 
quantity  of  steam  would  heat  six  cubic  inches  of 
water  from  the  atmospheric  temperature  to  the 
boiling  point.  Hence,  he  saw  that  six  times  the 
difference  of  temperature,  or  fully  800  degrees  of 
heat,  has  been  employed  in  giving  elasticity  to 
steam,  and  which  must  all  be  subtracted  before  a 
complete  vacuum  could  be  obtained  under  the 
piston  of  a  steam-engine." 

To  remedy  this  evil,  lie  first  substituted  a 
wooden  cylinder  for  a  metal  one ;  so  that  the 
heat  might  be  transmitted  more  slowly.  This, 
however,  was  liable  to  many  other  objections  ;  and 
he  then  cased  his  cylinders  in  wood,  and  filled  the 
space  between  them  with  ashes.  By  this  means, 
he  reduced  the  waste  one  half.  Still  he  felt  it  to 
be  of  great  consequence  to  condense  the  steam 
without  cooling  the  cylinder;  and  early  in  the 
year  1765,  it  occurred  to  him,  "that,  if  a  commu- 
nication were  opened  between  a  cylinder  contain- 
ing steam,  and  another  vessel  which  was  exhausted 
of  air  and  other  fluids \  the  steam,  as  an  expansi- 
ble fluid,  woidd  immediately  rush  into  the  empty 
vessel,  and  continue  to  do  so  until  it  had  established 
an  equilibrium ;  and  that,  if  the  vessel  were  kept 
very  cool  by  an  injection  or  otherwise,  more  steam 
would  continue  to  enter  until  the  whole  were  con- 
densed.'1'' This  was  an  immense  advance  ;  since, 
by  condensing  the  steam  in  a  separate  vessel, 
the  main  cylinder  could  be  preserved  at  the  same 
temperature.  There  was  soon  perceived,  how- 
ever, another  hindrance  to  this.  Thus  far,  the 
cylinder  was  open  at  the  top,  and  when  the  piston 


JAMES  WATT. 


135 


was  raised  by  steam,  it  was  pressed  down  again 
by  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere-  Hence,  as  the 
cold  air  was  admitted  on  the  descent  of  the  piston, 
the  sides  of  the  cylinder  were  necessarily  cooled. 
It  then  occurred  to  Mr.  Watt,  to  make  the  cylin- 
der air-tight,  simply  leaving  a  hole  for  the  passage 
of  the  piston  rod,  around  which  oakum  could  be 
packed  so  tight  as  to  prevent  the  escape  of  steam, 
and  then  to  dispense  with  the  air  entirely  in  the 
working  of  the  machine,  and  to  press  the  piston 
down  as  w  11  as  up,  by  means  of  steam.  This 
proved  to  be  another  great  improvement,  by  in- 
troducing a  force  which  could  be  precisely  con- 
trolled, doing  away  with  the  old  system  of  coun- 
terpoises, and  giving  the  engine  a  double-acting 
power.  Mr.  Watt  soon  found  by  experiment, 
that  he  had  not  overcome  all  the  impediments  in 
the  way  of  perfect  success.  The  vessel  in  which 
the  condensation  was  etfected,  —  the  condenser,  — 
became  soon  surcharged  with  water,  with  uncon- 
densed  steam,  and  partly  with  atmospheric  air 
contained  in  the  water,  and  set  free  from  it  by 
great  heat.  To  remedy  this,  his  genius  contrived 
to  apply  a  pump  (since  called  the  air-pump),  so 
that,  at  every  stroke  of  the  engine,  the  condenser 
might  be  freed  from  whatever  it  contained.  This 
pump  was  connected  with  the  engine  itself,  and 
worked  by  it. 

We  have  not  the  space  to  describe  particularly 
the  minor  improvements  which  were  afterwards 
introduced  by  Mr.  Watt  (among  which  was  the 
application  of  the  governor,  or  regulator),  but  the 
expansion  engine,  as  he  called  it,  is  an  improve- 
ment so  great  that  it  cannot  be  overlooked.  Ac- 
cording to  the  old  plan,  the  steam  was  admitted 


136 


JAMES  WATT. 


continuously,  at  one  end  of  the  cylinder,  until  the 
piston  was  entirely  raised,  and  then  again  at  the 
other  end,  until  it  was  entirely  depressed.  Upon 
this  plan,  it  was  found  necessary  to  proportion  the 
work  to  be  performed  very  exactly  to  the  power 
which  was  generated  ;  since,  if  the  power  greatly 
exceeded  the  weight  to  be  raised,  it  would  occa- 
sion so  rapid  a  motion,  that  no  machinery  could 
withstand  the  jolts  and  shocks.  Much  damage 
was  thus  done,  and  much  expense  incurred.  This 
was  no  slight  drawback  to  the  general  utility  of 
the  machine.  This  difficulty,  too,  was  effectually 
remedied.  Steam  in  the  boiler  is  greatly  con- 
densed. It  occurred  then  to  Mr.  Watt,  that,  if  the 
steam  were  shut  off  after  the  piston  had  been 
pressed  down  for  a  certain  proportion  of  its  total 
descent  —  say  one  half,  one  third,  or  one  quarter — 
the  expansive  force  of  the  steam  already  in- 
troduced would  be  sufficient  to  accomplish  the 
rest  of  the  descent.  This  was  found  to  be  the 
case;  and  by  adjusting  the  rods  of  the  machinery, 
the  valve  could  be  closed  at  any  moment,  and  the 
acting  force  brought  completely  under  the  power 
of  man.  By  this  means,  not  only  is  the  steam 
greatly  economized,  but  is  made  to  work  as  gently 
as  the  most  docile  animal,  The  jar  in  the  machi- 
nery is  taken  away  ;  and  an  engine,  with  the  power 
of  three  hundred  horses,  may  be  at  full  work,  and 
the  tremor  hardly  be  perceived. 

Another  important  discovery  resulted  from 
these  attempts  of  Mr.  Watt  to  economize  steam, 
and  to  save  the  machinery.  We  will  state  it  in 
the  words  of  a  recent  writer :  —  "  He  found  that 
steam,  admitted  into  the  cylinder  to  one  fourth  of 
its  depth,  and  exerting  a  pressure  amounting  to 


J  \  M  KS    WAT  T. 


137 


0,333  pounds,  when  allowed  to  expand  into  the 
whole  capacity  of  the  cylinder,  added  a  pressure 
of  8,781  pounds;  and  moreover,  that  had  the  cyl- 
inder been  tilled  with  steam  of  the  same  force,  and 
exerting  the  accumulated  pressure  of  (6,333X4) 
25,332  pounds,  the  steam  expended  in  that 
case  would  have  been  four  times  greater  than 
when  it  was  stopped  at  one  fourth ;  and  yet  the 
accumulated  pressure  was  not  twice  as  great,  be- 
ing nearly  five  thirds.  One  fourth  of  the  steam 
performs  nearly  three  fifths  of  the  work,  and  an 
equal  quantity  perforins  more  than  twice  as  much 
work  when  thus  admitted  during  one  fourth  of  the 
motion  ;  "  i.  e.,  instead  of  6,333  pounds,  exerts  an 
accumulated  force  of  15,1 14  pounds.'  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  these  figures  represent  the 
pressure  as  found  in  a  particular  experiment. 
The  proportions,  it  is  presumed,  will  be  found 
nearly  true  under  all  circumstances. 

We  have  thus  mentioned  some  of  the  principal 
improvements  effected  in  the  steam  engine,  by 
the  ingenuity  of  Mr.  Watt.  They  are  so  great, 
and  in  fact  essential,  as  to  throw  all  other  im- 
provements into  the  shade.  They,  indeed,  cre- 
ated the  modern  steam-engine.  Mr.  Watt,  per- 
haps, did  not  dream  of  the  extensive  applications 
to  which  this  power  could  be  put.  It  may  be  that 
we  ourselves  have  but  half  developed  its  capabil- 
ities. Steam  was  used  for  many  years  on  land, 
before  it  was  applied  with  any  success  to  the  pro- 
pelling of  boats.  It  was  employed  on  boats  long 
before  brought  into  service  in  moving  land  car- 
riages. Only  a  few  years  ago,  a  learned  man 
demonstrated,  as  he  thought,  the  absolute  imprac- 
ticability of  propelling  a  ship,  by  means  of  it, 

vol.  n.  12* 


%5% 

138  JAMES  WATT. 

across  the  Atlantic.  Bat  now  you  hear  the  panting 
of  the  mighty  monster  on  every  sea  and  ocean. 
It  rounds  the  southern  capes ;  circumnavigates 
the  world.  Manufactures,  the  most  delicate  and 
the  most  ponderous,  are  indebted  to  its  obedient 
ministrations ;  it  performs  processes  the  most 
complicated  as  well  as  the  most  simple  ;  it  weaves 
the  most  delicate  tissue ;  it  breaks  asunder  the 
strongest  bars  of  iron  ;  it  stretches  out  its  iron  fin- 
gers, seizes  the  sheet  of  paper,  and,  in  a  moment, 
delivers  it  back  to  you  a  printed  book  ;  it  raises 
the  huge  block  of  stone  to  the  top  of  the  monu- 
ment or  the  fortification  ;  it  turns  out  the  irregular 
shaped  last  and  gun-stock.  He  is  a  bold  prophet 
who  shall  foretell  a  limit  to  the  application  of  an 
agent  so  mighty  and  so  docile. 

These  improvements  were  not  made  by  Mr. 
Watt  without  trouble  and  expense.  His  reputa- 
tion was  strongly  attacked  ;  his  originality  denied  ; 
his  right  to  various  patents  vehemently  contested. 
He  was  many  times  disappointed  in  the  working 
of  his  own  contrivances,  and  was  obliged  to  throw 
away  many  pieces  of  machinery,  from  which  he 
expected  much.  And,  after  all,  he  left  abundant 
opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  ingenuity  by  fu- 
ture engineers.  In  fact  his  discoveries  furnished 
materials  for  the  many  improvements  which  have 
been  effected  since  his  time.  As  a  proof  of  the 
slight  use  which  had  been  made  of  steam-engines 
before  his  time,  and  of  the  prejudices  and  sluggish- 
ness against  which  his  invention  had  to  contend, 
it  is  stated  that  the  sum  of  very  nearly  £50,000  — 
almost  $250,000  —  was  expended  by  Watt  and 
Bolton  (his  partner)  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
improved  engines,  before  they  realized  any  return. 


J A.MES  WATT. 


139 


It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  improve- 
ments of  Mr.  Watt  were  made  continuously,  as 
they  have  been  described.  He  was  often  inter- 
rupted by  want  of  means  to  exhibit  his  machine 
on  an  adequate  scale,  and  also  by  engaging,  from 
time  to  time,  in  other  occupations.  He  did  not 
confine  himself  to  improvements  of  the  steam- 
engine.  Although  self-taught,  he  acquired  con- 
siderable reputation  as  a  civil  engineer.  In  1767, 
he  was  employed  to  make  a  survey  for  a  canal 
between  the  rivers  Forth  and  Clyde.  The  bill 
necessary  for  its  execution  was  lost  in  parliament. 
A  canal  from  the  Monkland  collieries  to  Glasgow 
was  then  entrusted  to  his  superintendence,  after 
he  had  already  made  the  necessary  surveys  and 
prepared  the  estimates.  The  Trustees  for  Fish- 
eries and  Manufactures  in  Scotland  soon  employed 
him  to  survey  a  projected  canal  from  Perth  to 
Forfar.  This  again  was  succeeded  by  a  survey 
of  the  Crinan  Canal,  to  connect  the  Frith  of  Clyde 
and  the  Western  Ocean.  This  canal  was  after- 
wards executed  by  his  friend,  Mr.  Rennie,  who 
became  distinguished  as  one  of  the  best  engineers 
in  England.  Business  of  this  kind  now  crowded 
upon  him.  He  was  called  upon  to  furnish  plans 
for  deepening  the  river  Clyde ;  for  rendering  the 
rivers  Forth  and  Devon  navigable  ;  for  improving 
the  harbors  of  Ayr,  Port-Glasgow,  and  Green- 
ock ;  and  for  building  several  important  bridges. 
The  last  and  greatest  work  of  this  sort,  upon 
which  he  was  engaged,  was  surveying  the  line  of 
a  projected  canal  between  Fort  William  and 
Inverness.  This  was  afterwards  executed  on  a 
larger  scale  than  was  at  first  proposed,  under  the 
name  of  the  Caledonian  Canal.    It  was  during 


MO 


JAMES  WATT. 


the  execution  of  some  of  these  works,  that  he  in- 
vented an  ingenious  micrometer,  for  measuring 
distances  (such  as  the  breadth  of  arms  of  the  sea) 
which  could  not  be  measured  by  the  chain.  It 
was  found  to  be  of  great  value  in  ascertaining  the 
distance  between  hills,  and,  on  uneven  ground, 
proved  to  be  more  accurate  than  the  chain. 

In  the  course  of  his  pursuits  as  a  surveyor,  Mr. 
Watt  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Roebuck,  an 
English  physician,  who  was  at  this  time  acquiring 
a  fortune  by  the  manufacture  of  sulphuric  acid. 
Dr.  Roebuck  had  a  short  time  before  completed 
his  establishment  of  the  Carron  Iron-works,*  and 
Mr.  Watt  formed  a  partnership  with  him,  for  the 
sake  of  the  pecuniary  aid  he  could  afford  in  con- 
structing the  improved  engines  on  a  large  scale  ; 
retaining,  as  his  own  share  of  the  protits,  one 
third  of  the  proceeds  from  the  invention.  In  his 
expectations,  he  was,  however,  disappointed  ;  part- 
ly from  entering  so  largely  into  engagements  as 
an  engineer,  some  of  which  we  have  already 
referred  to,  and  partly  from  the  pecuniary  diffi- 
culties in  which  his  partner  became  involved. 
He  had,  indeed,  nearly  given  up  the  hope  of  ac- 
complishing his  schemes,  when  Mr.  Matthew  Bol- 
ton, an  engineer  of  some  eminence  and  consider- 
able wealth,  living  near  Birmingham,  purchased 
Dr.  Roebuck's  share  of  the  patent.  The  partner- 
ship between  Watt  and  Bolton  was  formed  in 
177o,  and  Mr.  Watt  removed  to  England. 

Although  common  fame  cherishes  the  name  of 
Watt  mainly  as  the  perfecter  of  the  steam-engine, 

*  The  kind  of  ordnance  called  a  Carronade  received  its 
name  from  having  been  ftrst  manufactured  at  Carron.  a 
village  twenty-six  miles  north-east  from  Edinburgh. 


JAMES  WATT. 


141 


yet  he  did  not  confine  his  inventions  to  this  alone. 
Feeling  the  necessity  of  preserving  accurate  cop- 
ies of  his  drawings  and  of  letters  containing  calcu- 
lations, he  invented  a  copying  apparatus.  In  its 
simplest  form  it  is  merely  a  press,  by  means  of 
which,  a  thin  sheet  of  unsized  paper,  rendered 
slightly  wet,  is  strongly  pressed  upon  the  letter  to 
be  copied,  which  has  been  written  in  a  strong 
character,  with  ink  which  is  soluble  in  water. 
The  impression  is  then  read  on  the  opposite  side 
from  that  on  which  it  is  taken. 

In  1781,  he  contrived  a  steam-drying  apparatus 
for  a  relation  living  near  Glasgow.  In  1784-5, 
he  put  up  an  apparatus  for  heating  his  study  by 
means  of  steam,  a  method  which  is  now  frequent- 
ly used  in  manufactories,  in  conservatories  and 
hot-houses,  and,  sometimes,  ns  we  have  known,  in 
steamboats.  While  most  busily  occupied  with 
the  steam-engine,  he  found  time  to  engage  in 
chemical  studies.  The  constituent  elements  of 
water  attracted  his  attention,  on  account  of  some 
experiments  of  Dr.  Priestley  ;  and,  in  April,  1784, 
he  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society,  a  paper, 
entitled,  "  Thoughts  on  the  constituent  parts  of 
water  and  of  dephlogisticated  air,  with  an  account 
of  some  experiments  upon  that  subject." 

The  winter  of  1786-7,  Mr,  Watt  spent  at  Paris  ; 
having  been  invited  to  France  by  the  government 
for  the  purpose  of  suggesting  improvements  in 
the  manner  of  raising  water  at  Marly,  that  being 
the  place  from  which  the  splendid  water-works  at 
Versailles  draw  their  supply.  During  this  tem- 
porary residence,  he  became  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Berthollet,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  chemists 
of  his  time.    The  art  of  bleaching  by  means  of 


142 


JAMES  WATT. 


oxymuriatic  acid  had  just  been  discovered  by  him. 
He  communicated  the  invention  to  Mr.  Watt,  who, 
seeing  at  once  the  wide  use  that  might  be  made 
of  it,  advised  him  to  take  out  an  English  patent. 
This,  Mr.  Berthollet  declined  doing,  and  left  Mr. 
Watt  to  make  such  use  of  the  invention  as  he 
pleased.  Accordingly  he  introduced  it  into  the 
bleaching  field  of  his  father-in-law,  Mr.  MacGre- 
gor,  and  gave  directions  for  the  construction  of 
the  necessary  vessels  and  machinery.  At  his  first 
attempt,  he  bleached  five  hundred  pieces  of  cloth. 

From  1792  to  1799,  the  firm  of  Bolton  &  Watt 
was  much  occupied  in  defending  their  patent 
rights  against  numerous  invaders.  The  clues 
which  they  claimed  were  one  third  of  the  savings 
of  fuel,  compared  with  the  best  engines  previously 
in  use.  Several  verdicts  were  given  in  their  fa- 
vor, up  to  1799,  when  a  unanimous  decision  of  all 
the  judges  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  estab- 
lished the  validity  of  their  claims  to  novel  and 
useful  inventions. 

Jn  1800,  Mr.  Watt  withdrew  from  business ; 
giving  up  his  shares  to  his  two  sons,  of  whom  the 
youngest,  Mr.  Gregory  Watt,  died  soon  after. 

Although  thus  removed  from  immediate  con- 
nect ion  with  business,  his  interest  in  his  former 
pursuits  did  not  desert  him.  He  maintained  a 
warm  friendship  with  his  old  associate,  Mr.  Bol- 
ton, to  the  close  of  his  life.  One  of  his  later  in- 
ventions was  a  machine  for  copying  all  kinds  of 
statuary.  His  taste  for  sculpture  had  been  culti- 
vated by  a  series  of  experiments  in  making  a  com- 
position having  the  transparency  and  nearly  the 
hardness  of  marble,  from  which  he  made  many 
casts. 


JAMES  WATT. 


3  43 


In  1809,  from  grateful  remembrances  of  his 
early  residence  in  Glasgow,  he  lent  his  assistance 
to  the  proprietors  of  the  water-works,  in  their 
attempt  to  supply  the  city  with  pure  water.  The 
city  is  built  upon  the  right  bank  of  the  Clyde. 
It  was  proposed  to  sink  a  well  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  river,  where  the  sand  affords  a  natural  filter 
for  the  water.  The  problem  was,  to  convey  the 
water  across  the  river.  Mr.  Watt  suggested  a 
flexible  pipe,  which  was  found  to  succeed  com- 
pletely. Another  pipe  was  afterwards  laid,  in  or- 
der to  increase  the  supply.  The  idea  of  the 
flexible  joint  was  suggested,  as  he  himself  said, 
by  observing  the  flexibility  of  the  lobster's  tail. 

Although  we  have  confined  our  sketch  of  Mr. 
Watt  mainly  to  his  mechanical  skill,  it  would  not 
be  just  to  close  our  account  of  him  here.  There 
was  hardly  a  physical  science  or  an  art  with 
which  he  was  not  pretty  intimately  acquainted. 
His  philosophical  judgment  kept  pace  with  his 
ingenuity.  He  studied  modern  languages,  and 
was  acquainted  with  literature.  His  memory 
was  extremely  tenacious ;  and  whatever  he  once 
learned,  he  always  had  at  his  command.  We 
should  also  remember  that  his  health  was  never 
firm.  He  accomplished  his  great  labors  in  spite 
of  a  constitutional  debility,  increased  by  anxiety 
and  perplexity,  during  the  long  process  of  his  in- 
ventions, and  the  subsequent  care  of  defending 
them.  He  was  frequently  attacked  by  sick  head- 
aches of  great  severity,  which  seem  to  have  arisen 
from  a  defect  of  the  digestive  organs.  Nothing 
preserved  his  life  but  constant  temperance  and 
watchfulness  of  his  peculiar  difficulties.  Notwith- 
standing his  infirmities,  he  attained  the  great  age 


4 

144 


JAMES  WATT. 


of  83,  and  died  after  a  short  illness,  in  the  midst 
of  his  family,  at  Heathfield,  August  25,  1819. 

He  did  not  live  without  the  testimony  of  learned 
bodies  of  men  to  his  great  attainments.  In  1784, 
he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh;  in  1785,  a  member  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety of  London  ;  in  1787,  a  corresponding  mem- 
ber of  the  Batavian  Society  ;  in  1806,  he  received 
from  Glasgow  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  ;  and 
in  1808,  he  was  elected,  first,  a  corresponding 
member,  and  afterwards,  an  associate,  of  the  Insti- 
tute of  France. 

His  remains  were  deposited  in  the  chancel  of 
the  parochial  church  of  Handsworth,  near  those 
of  his  former  associate,  Mr.  Bolton.  An  excellent 
bust  of  him  was  made  by  Mr.  Chantry,  before 
his  death  ;  and  a  statue  was  subsequently  com- 
pleted by  the  same  distinguished  artist,  intended 
to  be  placed  upon  his  tomb. 

We  shall  close  this  sketch,  by  a  few  extracts 
from  an  eloquent  eulogy,  written  soon  after  his 
death,  by  Lord  Jeffrey,  and  published  in  the  jour- 
nals of  the  time  :  — 

"  It  is  with  pain  that  we  find  ourselves  called 
upon,  so  soon  after  the  loss  of  Mr.  Playfair,  to  re- 
cord the  decease  of  another  of  our  illustrious 
countrymen,  and  one  to  whom  mankind  has  been 
still  more  largely  indebted  —  Mr.  James  Watt, 
the  great  improver  of  the  steam-engine.  This 
name,  fortunately,  needs  no  commemoration  of 
ours  ;  for  he  that  bore  it  survived  to  see  it  crowned 
with  undisputed  and  unenvied  honors,  and  many 
generations  will  probably  pass  away  before  it  shall 
have  '  gathered  all  its  fame.'  We  have  said  that 
Mr.  Watt  was  the  great  improver  of  the  steam- 


JAMES  WATT. 


145 


engine  ;  but,  in  truth,  as  to  all  that  is  admirable 
in  its  structure,  or  vast  in  its  utility,  he  should 
rather  be  described  as  its  inventor.  It  was  by  his 
inventions,  that  its  action  was  so  regulated  as  to 
make  it  capable  of  being  applied  to  the  finest  and 
most  delicate  manufactures,  and  its  power  so  in- 
creased as  to  set  weight  and  solidity  at  defiance. 
By  his  admirable  contrivances,  it  has  become  a 
thing  stupendous  alike  for  its  force  and  its  flexi- 
bility,—  for  the  prodigious  power  which  it  can 
exert,  and  the  ease,  and  precision,  and  ductility, 
with  which  it  can  be  varied,  distributed,  and  ap- 
plied. The  trunk  of  an  elephant  that  can  pick 
up  a  pin  or  rend  an  oak,  is  as  nothing  to  it.  It 
can  engrave  a  seal,  and  crush  masses  of  obdurate 
metal  like  wax,  before  it,  —  draw  out,  without 
breaking,  a  thread  as  fine  as  gossamer,  and  lift  a 
ship  of  war  like  a  bauble  in  the  air.  It  can  em- 
broider muslin,  and  forge  anchors,  —  cut  steel 
into  ribands,  and  impel  loaded  vessels  against 
the  fury  of  the  winds  and  waves. 

"  It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the  value  of 
the  benefits  which  these  inventions  have  conferred 
upon  the  country.  There  is  no  branch  of  indus- 
try that  has  not  been  indebted  to  them  ;  and  in  all 
the  most  material,  they  have  not  only  widened 
most  magnificently  the  field  of  its  exertions,  but 
multiplied  a  thousand-fold  the  amount  of  its  pro- 
ductions. *  *  *  It  has  increased  indefinitely 
the  mass  of  human  comforts  and  enjoyments,  and 
rendered  cheap  and  accessible  all  over  the  world, 
the  materials  of  wealth  and  prosperity.  It  has 
armed  the  feeble  hand  of  man,  in  short,  with  a 
power  to  which  no  limit  can  be  assigned ;  com- 
pleted the  dominion  of  mind  over  the  most  refrac- 

yjDi^ju, — — — 


146 


JAMES  WATT. 


tory  qualities  of  matter  ;  and  laid  a  sure  founda- 
tion lor  all  those  future  miracles  of  mechanical 
power  which  are  to  aid  and  reward  the  labors  of 
after  generations.  It  is  to  the  genius  of  one  man, 
too,  that  all  this  is  mainly  owing  ;  and  certainly, 
no  man  ever  before  bestowed  such  a  gift  on  his 
kind.  The  blessing  is  not  only  universal,  but  un- 
bounded ;  and  the  fabled  inventors  of  the  plough 
and  the  loom,  who  were  deified  by  the  erring 
gratitude  of  their  rude  contemporaries,  conferred 
less  important  benefits  on  mankind,  than  the  in- 
ventor of  our  present  steam-engine.  *  *  *  * 
"  Independently  of  his  great  attainments  in  me- 
chanics, Mr.  Watt  was  an  extraordinary,  and,  in 
many  respects,  a  wonderful  man.  Perhaps  no  in- 
dividual in  his  age  possessed  so  much,  and  such 
varied  and  exact  information,  —  had  read  so 
much,  or  remembered  what  he  had  read  so  accu- 
rately and  well.  He  had  infinite  quickness  of  ap- 
prehension, a  prodigious  memory,  and  a  certain 
rectifying  and  methodising  power  of  understand- 
ing, which  extracted  something  precious  out  of  all 
that  was  presented  to  it.  His  stores  of  miscella- 
neous knowledge  were  immense,  —  and  yet  less 
astonishing  than  the  command  he  had  at  all  times 
over  them.  *  *  *  That  he  should  have  been 
minutely  and  extensively  skilled  in  chemistry 
and  the  arts,  and  in  most  branches  of  physical 
science,  might  perhaps  have  been  conjectured; 
but  it  could  not  have  been  inferred  from  his  usual 
occupations,  and  probably  is  not  generally  known, 
that  he  was  curiously  learned  in  many  branches 
of  antiquity,  metaphysics,  medicine,  and  etymolo- 
gy, and  perfectly  at  home  in  all  the  details  of 
architecture,  music,  and  law.    He  was  well  ac- 


JAMES  WATT. 


147 


quainted,  too,  with  most  of  the  modern  languages, 
and  familiar  with  their  most  recent  literature. 

"  His  astonishing  memory,  was  aided,  no  doubt, 
in  great  measure,  by  a  still  higher  and  rarer  fac- 
ulty —  by  his  power  of  digesting  and  arranging 
in  its  proper  place  all  the  information  he  received, 
and  of  casting  aside  and  rejecting,  as  it  were  in- 
stinctively, whatever  was  worthless  or  immaterial. 
*  *  *  It  is  needless  to  say,  that,  with  these 
vast  resources,  his  conversation  was  at  all  times 
rich  and  instructive  in  no  ordinary  degree ;  but  it 
was,  if  possible,  still  more  pleasing  than  wise,  and 
had  all  the  charms  of  familiarity,  with  all  the  sub- 
stantial treasures  of  knowledge.  No  man  could 
be  more  social  in  his  spirit,  less  assuming  or  fas- 
tidious in  his  manners,  or  more  kind  and  indulgent 
towards  all  who  approached  him.  *  *  *  His 
talk,  too,  though  overflowing  with  information, 
had  no  resemblance  to  lecturing  or  solemn  dis- 
coursing ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  full  of  collo- 
quial spirit  and  pleasantry.  He  had  a  certain 
quiet  and  grave  humor,  which  ran  through  most 
of  his  conversation  ;  and  a  vein  of  temperate  joc- 
ularity, which  gave  infinite  zest  and  effect  to  the 
condensed  and  inexhaustible  information,  which 
formed  its  main  staple  and  characteristic.  *  *  * 
He  had  in  his  character  the  utmost  abhorrence 
for  all  sorts  of  forwardness,  parade,  and  preten- 
sion ;  and,  indeed,  never  failed  to  put  all  such  im- 
postors out  of  countenance,  by  the  manly  plain- 
ness and  honest  intrepidity  of  his  language  and 
deportment. 

"  In  his  temper  and  disposition  he  was  not  only 
kind  and  affectionate,  but  generous,  and  conside- 
rate of  the  feelings  of  all  around  him  ;  and  gave 


148 


JAMES  WATT. 


the  most  liberal  assistance  and  encouragement  to 
all  young  persons  who  showed  any  indications 
of  talent,  or  applied  to  him  for  patronage  or 
advice.  *  *  *  His  friends,  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  never  saw  him  more  full  of  intellectual 
vigor  and  colloquial  animation, —  never  more 
delightful  or  more  instructive,  than  in  his  last  visit 
to  Scotland,  in  autumn,  1817.  Indeed,  it  was  af- 
ter that  time  that  he  applied  himself,  with  all  the 
ardor  of  early  life,  to  the  invention  of  a  machine 
for  mechanically  copying  all  sorts  of  sculpture 
and  statuary,  and  distributed  among  his  friends 
some  of  its  earliest  performances,  as  the  production 
of  a  young  artist,  just  entering  on  his  83d  year. 

"  This  happy  and  useful  life  came  at  last  to  a 
gentle  close.  He  had  suffered  some  inconve- 
nience through  the  summer,  but  was  not  serious- 
ly indisposed  till  within  a  few  weeks  from  his 
death.  He  then  became  perfectly  aware  of  the 
event  which  was  approaching  ;  and,  with  his  usual 
tranquillity  and  benevolence  of  nature,  seemed 
only  anxious  to  point  out  to  the  friends  around 
him,  the  many  sources  of  consolation  which  were 
afforded  by  the  circumstances  in  which  it  was 
about  to  take  place.  *  *  *  He  was  twice 
married,  but  has  left  no  issue  but  one  son,  long 
associated  with  him  in  his  business  and  studies, 
and  two  grand-children  by  a  daughter  who  pre- 
deceased him.  *  *  *  All  men  of  learning 
and  science  were  his  cordial  friends  ;  and  such 
was  the  influence  of  his  mild  character  and  per- 
fect fairness  and  liberality,  even  upon  the  preten- 
ders to  these  accomplishments,  that  he  lived  to 
disarm  even  envy  itself,  and  died,  we  verily  be- 
lieve, without  a  single  enemy." 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


Eli  Whitney  was  born  in  Westborough, 
Mass.,  December  8,  1765.  His  father  was  a  re- 
spectable farmer,  industrious,  frugal,  and  indepen- 
dent. The  mechanical  genius  of  the  boy  displayed 
itself  at  a  very  early  age.  His  sister  gives  the 
following  account  of  it :  —  "  Our  father  had  a  work- 
shop, and  sometimes  made  wheels  of  different 
kinds,  and  chairs.  He  had  a  variety  of  tools,  and 
a  lathe  for  turning  chair  posts.  This  gave  my 
brother  an  opportunity  of  learning  the  use  of  tools 
when  very  young.  He  lost  no  time  ;  but,  as  soon 
as  he  could  handle  tools,  he  was  always  making 
something  in  the  shop,  and  seemed  not  to  like 
working  on  the  farm.  On  a  time,  after  the  death 
of  our  mother,  when  our  father  had  been  absent 
from  home  two  or  three  days,  on  his  return  he 
inquired  of  the  housekeeper,  what  the  boys  had 
been  doing.  She  told  him  what  B.  and  J.  had 
been  about.  '  But  what  has  Eli  been  doing  ? ' 
said  he.  She  replied  he  had  been  making  a  fiddle. 
'  Ah ! '  added  he  despondingly,  '  I  fear  Eli  will 
have  to  take  his  portion  in  fiddles.'  He  was  at 
this  time  about  twelve  years  old.  This  fiddle  was 
finished  throughout,  like  a  common  violin,  and 
made  tolerably  good  music.  It  was  examined  by 
many  persons,  and  all  pronounced  it  to  be  a  re- 
markable piece  of  work  for  such  a  boy  to  perform. 
From  this  time  he  was  employed  to  repair  violins, 
and  had  many  nice  jobs,  which  were  always  ex- 
ecuted to  the  entire  satisfaction,  and  often  to  the 

YOT,,  tt,  38*- 


150 


ELI  WHITNEY'. 


astonishment,  of  his  customers.  His  father's  watch 
being  the  greatest  piece  of  mechanism  that  had 
yet  presented  itself  to  his  observation,  he  was  ex- 
tremely desirous  of  examining  its  interior  con- 
struction, but  was  not  permitted  to  do  so.  One 
Sunday  morning,  observing  that  his  father  was 
going  to  meeting,  and  would  leave  at  home  the 
wonderful  little  machine,  lie  immediately  feigned 
illness  as  an  apology  for  not  going  to  church.  As 
soon  as  the  family  were  out  of  sight,  he  flew  to 
the  room  where  the  watch  hung ;  and,  taking  it 
down,  he  was  so  delighted  with  its  motions,  that 
he  took  it  all  in  pieces  before  he  thought  of  the 
consequences  of  his  rash  deed ;  for  his  father  was 
a  stern  parent,  and  punishment  would  have  been 
the  reward  of  his  idle  curiosity,  had*the  mischief 
been  detected.  lie,  however,  put  the  work  all  so 
neatly  together,  that  his  father  never  discovered 
his  audacity  until  he  himself  told  him,  many  years 
afterwards." 

At  an  early  age,  Whitney  lost  his  mother ;  his 
father  married  again,  when  he  was  about  thirteen. 
Among  the  new  furniture  brought  into  the  house, 
in  consequence  of  this  arrangement,  was  a  hand- 
some set  of  table  knives.  On  seeing  them,  the 
boy  remarked  that  "  he  could  make  as  good  ones 
if  he  had  tools,  and  he  could  make  the  necessary 
tools  if  he  had  a  few  common  ones  to  make  them 
with."  This  remark  was  not  very  graciously  re- 
ceived ;  but  the  truth  of  it  was  soon  proved.  One 
of  the  knives,  before  long,  was  broken ;  and  the 
boy  made  another  just  like  it,  excepting  the  stamp 
on  the  blade  which  he  had  no  tools  to  impress. 

When  he  was  fifteen  or  sixteen,  he  began  to 
turn  his  mechanical  ingenuity  to  some  account. 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


151 


The  revolutionary  war  had  not  closed  ;  and  nails 
were  in  great  demand,  and  bore  a  high  price. 
Young  Whitney  determined  to  commence  manu- 
facturing them.  Having  obtained  the  consent  of 
his  father,  he  went  to  work,  gained  time,  by  dil- 
igence, to  make  his  own  tools,  and  for  two  winters 
labored  with  much  success.  His  summers  were 
spent  upon  the  farm.  Wishing  to  enlarge  his  lit- 
tle works,  he  set  out  on  horseback  without  men- 
tioning his  plan  to  his  father,  and  went  in  quest 
of  a  fellow-workman.  He  travelled  from  town  to 
town,  calling  at  every  workshop  on  his  way,  and 
learning  all  that  he  possibly  could  of  various  me- 
chanic arts  ;  nor  was  it  till  he  had  gone  forty 
miles  from  home  that  he  found  a  laborer  of  suffi- 
cient skill.  This  excursion  is  an  early  illustra- 
tration  of  that  perseverance  which  was  one  of  his 
distinguishing  characteristics  in  future  life. 

With  the  close  of  the  war,  his  occupation  as 
nailmaker  lost  its  profitableness,  and  he  turned 
his  attention  to  making  the  long  pins  with  which 
ladies  were  at  that  time  accustomed  to  fasten  their 
bonnets.  In  this  his  ingenuity  was  such,  that  he 
soon  nearly  monopolized  the  business.  Although 
thus  enticed  by  success  to  devote  himself  imme- 
diately to  lucrative  manufactures,  he  felt  an  earn- 
est desire  to  obtain  a  liberal  education.  This 
wish  was  opposed  by  his  step-mother ;  nor  did  his 
father  give  his  free  consent,  until  the  young  man 
was  twenty-three  years  old.  By  various  methods, 
however,  —  teaching  a  village-school  in  the  winter, 
and  carefully  laying  up  the  avails  of  his  manual 
labor, — he  was  able  so  to  prepare  himself  as  to 
enter  the  Freshman  class  at  Yale  College,  in  May, 
1789.    Tn  advancing  to  this  point,  he  had  to  en- 


152 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


counter  other  obstacles  besides  the  reluctance  of 
his  friends.  An  intelligent  neighbor  endeavored 
to  dissuade  his  father  from  sending  him,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  a  pity  that  such  fine  mechan- 
ical talents  should  be  wasted.  Whitney  thought 
otherwise.  He  probably  had  some  idea  of  the 
tendency  of  a  liberal  education  to  expand  the  fac- 
ulties, and  liberalize  the  whole  man.  He  thought 
that  extensive  knowledge,  and  the  severest  men- 
tal discipline,  would  only  give  him  a  wider  reach 
and  a  stronger  grasp  of  mind,  and  enable  him 
to  apply  more  effectively  the  peculiar  ingenuity 
with  which  he  was  endowed.  We  shall  hereafter 
see  howT  much  he  was  indebted  to  his  liberal  edu- 
cation for  the  manner  in  which  he  was  received 
and  regarded  by  the  highest  order  of  intellect  in 
the  land,  and  for  the  elevated  tone  which  he  nat- 
urally assumed  in  his  intercourse  both  with  indi- 
viduals, and  with  the  governments  of  different 
states. 

In  the  month  of  July,  1788,  while  preparing 
to  enter  college,  he  was  seized  with  a  fever,  which 
threatened  his  life.  Thus  was  he  again  retarded 
from  the  goal  of  his  wishes.  His  purpose  was 
not  shaken,  however ;  and  after  his  recovery,  he 
finished  his  preparatory  course  with  Dr.  Goodrich, 
of  Durham,  Connecticut,  and,  in  due  time  found 
himself,  as  we  have  said,  a  member  of  Yale  Col- 
lege. 

His  college  bills  were  paid  by  his  father ;  but 
the  money  furnished  was  considered  by  the  son  as 
a  loan,  for  which  he  gave  his  note.  During  his 
residence  at  college,  he  devoted  his  main  atten- 
tion to  the  subjects  of  which  he  was  most  fond. 
Mathematics  and  mechanics  received  more  atten- 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


153 


tion  from  him  than  the  classics.  His  ingenuity 
sometimes  served  him  a  good  purpose.  On  one 
occasion,  some  of  the  philosophical  apparatus  was 
out  of  order,  and  it  was  thought  necessary  to  send 
it  abroad  to  be  repaired.  Mr.  Whitney  proposed 
to  remedy  the  defect,  and  did  so  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  faculty. 

After  receiving  his  degree,  in  1792,  he  prepared 
to  go  to  Georgia,  as  private  tutor  in  the  family  of 
a  gentleman  who  had  engaged  his  services.  As 
a  precautionary  measure,  at  that  time  thought 
necessary  to  every  traveller,  he  was  inoculated 
for  the  small-pox.  On  his  recovery,  he  sailed  for 
Savannah,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Greene,  the 
widow  of  General  Greene.  This  acquaintance 
proved  in  many  respects  a  very  fortunate  one  for 
the  young  adventurer.  He  had  hardly  landed  in 
Georgia,  a  State  to  him  ever  ungrateful,  when  he 
found  that  another  teacher  had  been  employed  in 
his  place.  Being  thus  left  without  friends  and 
without  resources,  he  was  kindly  received  into 
the  family  of  Mrs.  Greene,  and  encouraged  to 
pursue  the  study  of  law,  to  which  his  attention 
had  been  turned.  He  did  not  remain  long  with- 
out giving  proof  of  his  mechanical  skill.  His 
hostess  was  making  a  piece  of  embroidery  in  a 
tambour  frame,  of  which  she  complained  that  it 
broke  the  threads  of  her  work.  Mr.  Whitney  im- 
mediately constructed  another  frame  on  a  different 
plan,  which  remedied  all  the  defects  of  the  old. 

He  was  on  the  eve,  too,  of  another  invention, 
which,  from  its  immense  utility,  has  rendered  his 
name  familiar  over  half  the  world.  The  uplands 
of  Georgia,  and  of  the  Southern  States  generally, 
were  known  to  be  well  adapted  to  the  raising  of  a 


154  ELI  WHITNEY. 

kind  of  cotton,  called  the  green  seed,  or  short  sta- 
ple. The  great  drawback  to  the  value  of  this 
product  was  the  difficulty  of  separating  the  cotton 
fibre  from  the  seed  wrapped  up  in  it.  To  clean 
one  pound  of  the  cotton  was  a  day's  work  for  a 
woman.  This  difficulty,  and  the  necessity  of  some 
machine  to  remedy  it,  before  the  cultivation  of 
cotton  could  become  of  value,  was  the  subject  of 
conversation,  on  a  certain  occasion,  with  a  com- 
pany of  gentlemen,  many  of  them  officers  in  the 
Revolution,  who  were  dining  with  Mrs.  Greene. 
"  Gentlemen,"  said  this  lady  to  them,  at  length, 
"  apply  to  my  young  friend  Mr.  Whitney,  —  he 
can  make  any  thing."  Her  purpose  was  to  inter- 
est her  friends  in  a  deserving  young  man  ;  but  the 
result  was  entirely  beyond  her  expectations. 
Whitney  had  never  seen  either  the  raw  cotton,  or 
the  cotton  seed ;  but  his  mind  fastened  upon  the 
subject.  It  was  out  of  season  for  cotton  in  the 
seed  ;  but  he  went  to  Savannah,  and,  by  searching 
in  boats  and  warehouses,  he  found  enough  to 
show  him  the  kind  of  material  with  which  he  was 
to  experiment.  This  he  carried  home,  and,  hav- 
ing a  room  assigned  him  in  the  basement  of  the 
house,  set  himself  to  the  invention  of  the  Cotton 
Gin.  In  order  to  do  this,  he  had  to  make  his 
own  tools,  and  to  draw  the  wire  of  which  the  teeth 
of  the  instrument  were  at  first  made.  By  the 
close  of  the  winter,  the  machine  was  nearly  com- 
pleted, and  Mrs.  Greene  was  anxious  to  show  it 
to  her  friends.  She  therefore  invited  gentlemen 
from  different  parts  of  the  State,  to  her  house  ; 
and,  having  conducted  them  to  a  temporary 
building,  exhibited  to  their  wondering  and  de- 
lighted eyes  the  simple  instrument  which  was 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


loo 


about  to  work  such  wonders  upon  the  Southern 
plantations,  to  add  so  inestimably  to  the  wealth  of 
half  our  country,  and  to  promote  to  so  unexpected 
and  marvellous  an  extent,  the  manufacture  and 
consumption  of  cotton. 

The  cotton  gin  is  not  so  complicated  a  machine 
as  its  great  reputation  would  lead  one  to  suppose. 
It  consists,  says  one  description,  "  of  a  receiver, 
having  one  side  covered  with  strong  parallel 
wires,  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  apart.  Between 
these  wires  pass  a  number  of  circular  saws,  re- 
volving on  a  common  axis.  The  cotton  is  entan- 
gled in  the  teeth  of  the  saws,  and  drawn  out 
through  the  grating;  while  the  seeds  are  pre- 
vented, by  their  size,  from  passing.  The  cotton, 
thus  extricated,  is  swept  from  the  saws  by  a  revolv- 
ing cylindrical  brush,  and  the  seeds  fall  out  at  the 
bottom  of  the  receiver." 

Let  us  for  a  moment  look  at  the  increase  in  the 
production  of  cotton  in  the  United  States.  In 
1784,  eight  bags  of  cotton  on  board  an  American 
vessel,  •  at  Liverpool,  were  seized  by  the  custom- 
house officers,  under  the  conviction  that  so  much 
could  not  be  the  product  of  the  United  .  States. 
In  1791,  the  whole  export  of  the  United  States 
was  sixty -four  bags,  of  three  hundred  pounds  each.* 
The  average  growth  of  the  three  years  previous 
to  1828  was  two  hundred  and  seventy  millions  of 
pounds.  In  the  year  1839,  according  to  the 
United  States  census,  there  were  gathered  seven 

HUNDRED  AND  NINETY  MILLIONS,  FOUR  HUN- 
DRED SEVENTY-NINE  THOUSAND,  TWO  HUN- 
DRED  AND   SEVENTY-FIVE  POUNDS.      This  pro- 


*Encycl.  Americana. — Article  Cotton. 


156 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


digious  increase  in  the  production  has,  of  course, 
been  proportionate  to  an  equally  prodigious  in- 
crease in  the  use.  Cotton  fabrics  have  gradually 
taken  the  place  of  various  other  kinds.  Hemp 
and  linen  have  yielded  to  it.  It  is  found  capable 
of  producing  the  coarse  canvass  for  sails,  and  the 
delicate  muslin  for  embroidery.  It  is  made  into 
beds  of  the  cheapest  and  most  agreeable  kind  ;  and, 
by  the  application  of  a  chemical  agent,  is,  in  a  few 
moments,  converted  into  an  explosive  material, 
destined  to  work  we  know  not  what  revolutions  in 
the  art  of  war,  or  the  more  profitable  employment 
of  civil  engineering.  Cities,  devoted  mainly  to  its 
manufacture,  have  sprung  up  in  a  night,  and  the 
capital  employed  in  them  almost  surpasses  the 
power  of  computation.  The  two  men  to  whom 
the  nations  are  most  indebted  for  this  marvellous 
change  are,  undoubtedly,  Arkwright  and  Whit- 
ney,—  the  latter  rendering  it  possible  to  produce 
the  article  with  profit;  the  former  enabling 
men  to  manufacture  it  with  ease  and  rapidity. 
With  the  increased  use,  the  price  was  proportion- 
ally diminished.  What  cost  thirty  cents  in  1815, 
in  1830  cost  less  than  ten,  and  still  less  in  1840. 
None  in  our  country  are  now  too  poor  to  be  com- 
fortably and  neatly  clad  in  this  healthful  fabric. 

In  an  English  magazine,  there  appeared  not  a 
great  while  ago,  an  article,  pleasantly  illustrating 
the  progress  of  a  pound  of  cotton,  in  the  course 
of  the  various  processes  exercised  upon  it. 
"  There  was  sent  to  London,  lately,  from  Paisley, 
a  small  piece  of  muslin,  about  one  pound  weight, 
the  history  of  which  is  as  follows :  —  The  wool 
came  from  the  East  Indies  to  London ;  from  Lon- 
don it  went  to  Lancashire,  where  it  was  manufac- 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


157 


tured  into  yarn  ;  from  Manchester  it  was  sent  to 
Paisley,  where  it  was  woven ;  it  was  sent  to 
Ayrshire  next,  where  it  was  tamboured  ;  it  was 
then  conveyed  to  Dumbarton,  where  it  was  hand- 
sewed,  and  again  returned  to  Paisley,  whence  it 
was  sent  to  Glasgow  and  finished ;  and  then 
sent,  per  coach,  to  London.  It  may  be  reckoned 
about  three  years  that  it  took  to  bring  this  article 
to  market,  from  the  time  when  it  was  packed  in 
India,  till  it  arrived  complete  in  the  merchant's 
warehouse  in  London,  whither  it  must  have  been 
conveyed  5,000  miles  by  sea,  nearly  1,000  by  land, 
and  have  contributed  to  reward  the  labor  of  near- 
ly 150  persons,  whose  services  were  necessary  in 
the  carriage  and  manufacture  of  this  small  quan- 
tity of  cotton,  and  by  which  the  value  has  been 
advanced  more  than  2,000  per  cent." 

The  effect  of  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin 
upon  the  Southern  States  was  immediate  and  per- 
manent. In  the  language  of  Judge  Johnson,  in 
pronouncing  an  opinion,  in  the  U.  S.  Court,  held 
in  Georgia,  December,  1807,  "  The  whole  interior 
of  the  Southern  States  was  languishing,  and  its 
inhabitants  emigrating  for  want  of  some  object  to 
engage  their  attention  and  employ  their  industry, 
when  the  invention  of  this  machine  at  once 
opened  views  to  them  which  set  the  whole  coun- 
try in  active  motion.  From  childhood  to  age,  it 
has  presented  to  us  a  lucrative  employment.  In- 
dividuals who  were  depressed  with  poverty,  and 
sunk  in  idleness,  have  suddenly  risen  to  wealth 
and  respectability.  Our  debts  have  been  paid 
off.  Our  capitals  have  increased,  and  our  lands 
trebled  themselves  in  value.  We  cannot  express 
the  weight  of  the  obligation  which  the  country 

vol.  il  _~44^ 


158  ELI  WHITNEY. 

owes  to  this  invention.  The  extent  of  it  cannot 
now  be  seen.  Some  faint  presentiment  may  be 
formed,  from  the  reflection  that  cotton  is  rapidly 
supplanting  wool,  flax,  silk,  and  even  furs  in  man- 
ufactures, and  may  one  day  profitably  supply  the 
use  of  specie  in  our  East  India  trade.  Our  sister 
States  also  participate  in  the  benefits  of  this  in- 
vention ;  for,  besides  affording  the  raw  material 
for  their  manufacturers,  the  bulkiness  and  quan- 
tity of  the  article  afford  a  valuable  employment 
for  their  shipping." 

The  inventor  of  a  machine  of  such  inestimable 
value,  we  might  very  naturally  suppose,  would 
receive  an  adequate  reward  for  the  benefit  con- 
ferred. So  far,  however,  was  this  from  being  the 
case,  that  his  whole  expectations  from  the  State 
of  Georgia  were  utterly  disappointed  and  frustated, 
and  the  emoluments  received  from  other  States 
but  little  more  than  enabled  him  to  meet  the  ac- 
tual expenses  incurred  in  the  almost  endless  law- 
suits by  which  alone  he  defended  his  undoubted 
rights. 

Mr.  Whitney  was  early  so  impressed  with  the 
perplexities  to  which  he  should  be  subjected,  and 
so  reluctant  to  turn  aside  from  the  profession  of 
law,  for  which  he  was  studying,  that  for  some 
time  he  declined  taking  out  a  patent  for  his  inven- 
tion. At  length,  however,  induced  by  the  urgen- 
cy of  his  friends,  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
Mr.  Miller,  who  had  become  the  husband  of  Mrs. 
Greene,  and  immediately  returned  to  Connecti- 
cut, for  the  sake  of  perfecting  the  machine ;  and, 
after  obtaining  a  patent,  of  manufacturing,  and 
sending  a  number  of  them  to  Georgia.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  populace  became  anxious  to  pos- 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


159 


sess  an  instrument  which  was  so  valuable,  and, 
unable  to  obtain  it  immediately  in  any  other  man- 
ner, broke  open  by  night  the  building  which  con- 
tained it,  and  carried  it  off.  In  consequence  of 
this,  the  invention  became  known ;  and  a  number 
of  machines,  differing  slightly  from  the  original, 
were  constructed  before  the  patent  could  be  issued. 

The  very  first  letter  to  Whitney  from  his  part- 
ner, after  he  himself  had  returned  to  Connecticut, 
announced  that  rival  machines  were  in  the  field. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  detail  at  length  the  vex- 
ations and  perplexities  to  which  the  patentees 
were  subjected.  Money,  at  that  time,  was  scarce. 
In  order  to  carry  on  their  operations  with  success, 
it  was  necessary  to  go  beyond  their  own  means, 
and  borrow  at  a  ruinous  rate  of  interest,  at  one 
time  as  high  as  five,  six,  and  even  seven  per  cent, 
per  month.  This  was  the  least  of  their  evils. 
The  roller  gin  and  the  saw  gin  were  set  up  in 
opposition  to  Whitney's.  In  March,  1795,  having 
occasion  to  visit  New  York,  he  was  attacked 
with  the  fever  and  ague,  and  laid  up  for  three 
weeks.  As  soon  as  he  could  go  out,  he  returned 
to  New  Haven  ;  and  the  first  tidings  that  reached 
him,  as  he  stepped  on  shore,  were,  that  his  shop 
was  burnt  with  all  his  machines,  plans,  and  pa- 
pers. This  sad  accident,  which  left  him  an  abso- 
lute bankrupt,  with  a  debt  of  four  thousand  dol- 
lars, did  not  dishearten  him.  His  partner,  too, 
in  reply  to  the  letter  conveying  the  unpleasant 
intelligence,  showed  that  he  could  bear  misfortune 
with  equanimity.  "  We  have  been  pursuing,"  he 
says,  "  a  valuable  object  by  honorable  means ; 
and  I  trust  that  all  our  measures  have  been  such 
as  reason  and  virtue  must  justify.    It  has  pleased 


Ill  WHITNEY. 


Providence  to  postpone  the  attainment  of  this  ob- 
ject. In  the  midst  of  the  reflections  which  your 
story  has  suggested,  and  with  feelings  keenly 
awake  to  the  heavy,  the  extensive  injury  we  have 
sustained,  I  feel  a  secret  joy  and  satisfaction,  that 
you  possess  a  mind  in  this  respect  similar  to  my 
own  —  that  you  are  not  disheartened  —  that  you 
do  not  relinquish  the  pursuit — and  that  you  will 
persevere  and  endeavor,  at  all  events,  to  attain 
the  main  object.  I  will  devote  all  my  time,  all 
my  thoughts,  all  my  exertions,  and  all  the  money 
I  can  earn  or  borrow,  to  encompass  and  complete 
the  business  we  have  undertaken  ;  and  if  fortune 
should,  by  any  future  disaster,  deny  us  the  boon 
we  ask,  we  will  at  least  deserve  it.  It  shall  never 
be  said  that  we  have  lost  an  object  which  a  little 
perseverance  could  have  attained." 

While  laboring  under  this  depression,  news 
came  that  the  English  manufacturers  condemned 
their  machines,  as  injuring  the  cotton.  This  was 
a  heavier  blow  than  they  had  felt  at  all ;  since,  if 
the  fact  alleged  were  true,  the  invention  would  be 
regarded  with  such  distrust  as  virtually  to  make 
it  of  no  value.  Mr.  Miller  advised  Whitney  to 
go  immediately  to  England,  and  counteract,  by  se- 
vere experiments,  the  unfortunate  opinion.  Noth- 
ing but  a  want  of  money  prevented  him.  How- 
ever, after  a  time,  respectable  manufacturers,  both 
abroad  and  at  home,  expressed  the  opinion  that 
the  machine  was  an  advantage  to  the  staple. 
This  restored  its  popularity,  and  would  have  made 
it  valuable  to  the  owners,  if  the  encroachments 
on  the  patent  right  had  not  become  so  general. 

The  first  trial  which  they  obtained  was  in  1797. 
The  case  seemed  so  clear  that  the  defendant  told 


V. 

ELI  WHITNEY.  161 


an  acquaintance  that  he  would  give  two  thousand 
dollars  to  be  free  from  the  verdict.  Nevertheless 
the  jury  decided  against  them.  An  application 
for  a  new  trial  was  refused.  Strong  efforts  were 
made  for  a  trial  in  a  second  suit ;  but,  by  the  non- 
appearance of  the  Judge,  no  court  was  held.  In 
1799,  they  seemed  to  conclude  that  nothing  was 
to  be  hoped  for  in  Georgia,  and  arrangements 
were  made  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two,  for  ob- 
taining assistance  by  direct  application  to  the  legis- 
latures of  the  different  States.  The  first  attempt 
was  made  in  South  Carolina.  Mr.  Whitney,  with 
letters  from  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  President,  and 
Mr.  Madison,  Secretary  of  State,  went  to  Colum- 
bia, and  presented  a  memorial,  in  which  the  use 
of  the  cotton  gin  was  offered  to  the  State,  for  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  After  some  discussion, 
the  legislature  decided  to  offer  fifty  thousand,  — 
twenty  thousand  to  be  paid  in  hand,  and  the  re- 
mainder, in  three  annual  payments  often  thousand 
dollars  each.  On  application  to  North  Carolina, 
a  tax  of  two  shillings  and  sixpence,  to  be  con- 
tinued for  five  years,  was  laid  upon  every  saw, 
some  of  the  gins  having  as  many  as  forty  saws. 
In  Tennessee,  a  tax  of  thirty-seven  cents  and  a 
half  per  annum  was  laid  for  four  years.  These 
favorable  prospects  were  not  without  interruption. 
The  year  after  the  grant  was  made  in  South 
Carolina,  it  was  annulled  by  a  succeeding  legisla- 
ture, and  a  suit  instituted  for  the  recovery  of  what 
had  been  already  paid.  This  was  in  1803.  The 
Governor  of  Georgia,  in  his  message  the  same 
year,  strongly  advised  the  legislature  not  to  grant 
any  thing  to  Miller  and  Whitney.  Tennesee, 
following  the  example  of  South  Carolina,  sus- 


1 62 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


pended  the  payment  of  the  tax  laid  on  the  pro- 
ceeding year.  A  similar  attempt  was  made  in 
the  legislature  of  North  Carolina,  but  it  entirely 
failed ;  their  regard  to  the  sacredness  of  the  con- 
tract, and  the  usefulness  of  the  invention,  leading 
them,  instead,  to  reaffirm  the  obligation  they  had 
assumed.  In  South  Carolina,  also,  the  legislature 
of  1804  rescinded  the  miserable  act  of  the  pre- 
ceding year,  and  bestowed  upon  Mr.  Whitney 
"  marked  commendations."  In  the  midst  of  the 
perplexities  of  the  year  1803,  Mr.  Whitney  was 
farther  distressed  by  the  death  of  his  partner, 
Mr.  Miller.  He  was  then  left  to  bear  up  against 
his  trials  alone. 

The  recompense  which  he  received  from  North 
and  South  Carolina  relieved  him  from  immediate 
embarrassment,  but  was  nearly  all  swallowed  up 
by  the  expensive  lawsuits  he  was  subjected  to  in 
Georgia.  In  1807,  the  decision  of  Judge  John- 
son, to  which  we  have  before  referred,  was  given 
in  his  favor,  and  the  same  was  afterwards  re- 
affirmed. But  now  the  term  of  his  patent  had 
nearly  expired.  "  More  than  sixty  suits  had  been 
instituted  in  Georgia  before  a  single  decision  on 
the  merits  of  his  claim  was  obtained."  He  made 
six  journeys  to  Georgia,  on  this  troublesome  busi- 
ness, generally  going  by  land,  in  an  open  sulkeg, 
hazarding  his  health  and  life,  and  receiving,  what 
he  well  thought,  a  most  inadequate  return  for  his 
invention.  "  In  all  my  experience  in  the  thorny 
profession  of  the  law,"  says  Hon.  S.  M.  Hopkins, 
of  New  York,  u  I  have  never  seen  a  case  of  such 
perseverance,  under  such  persecutions ;  nor  do  I 
believe  that  I  ever  knew  any  other  man  who  would 
have  met  them  with  equal  coolness  and  firmness, 


J/trl 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


163 


or  who  would  finally  have  obtained  even  the  par- 
tial success  which  he  had.  He  always  called  on 
me  in  New  York,  on  his  way  South,  when  going 
to  attend  his  endless  trials,  and  to  meet  the  mis- 
chievous contrivances  of  men  who  seemed  inex- 
haustible in  their  resources  of  evil.  Even  now, 
after  thirty  years,  my  head  aches  to  recollect  his 
narratives  of  new  trials,  fresh  disappointments, 
and  accumulated  wrongs." 

Although  Mr.  Whitney  manifested  so  much 
perseverance  in  securing  the  profits  of  his  inven- 
tion, yet  he  became  fully  convinced  that  he  had 
little  to  hope  for  from  this  source,  and  he  there- 
fore determined  to  devote  his  powers  to  some 
other  enterprise.  On  the  14th  of  January,  1798, 
he  concluded  a  contract,  through  the  influence  of 
Hon.  Oliver  Wolcott,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
to  furnish  the  United  States  government  with  ten 
thousand  stand  of  arms,  for  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  thousand  dollars  ;  four  thousand  mus- 
kets to  be  delivered  by  the  last  day  of  Septem- 
ber, 1799,  and  the  remainder  within  the  following 
year.  This  was  a  gigantic  undertaking  for  one 
whose  funds  were  limited,  who  was  obliged  to 
erect  his  manufactory,  to  find  and  instruct  his 
workmen,  to  invent  a  considerable  part  of  his  ma- 
chinery, and  to  make  the  whole  of  it.  His  very 
tools  he  was  obliged  to  manufacture.  His  inde- 
pendence, enterprise,  industry,  and  mechanical 
skill,  all  were  taxed  to  the  utmost.  It  was  not  a 
branch  of  manufacture  with  which  he  was  particu- 
larly conversant,  and  he  was  obliged  to  rely  almost 
solely  on  his  own  resources,  and  the  sympathy 
and  encouragement  of  his  friends.  Through  their 
cooperation  he  obtained  ten  thousand  dollars  from 


164 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


the  bank  of  New  Haven ;  five  thousand  more 
were  advanced  to  him  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  With 
this  he  commenced  his  works  at  the  foot  of  the 
East  Rock,  about  two  miles  from  New  Haven. 
He  soon  found  that  it  would  be  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  keep  his  contract  so  as  to  deliver  the  full 
number  of  muskets  in  season.  "  It  was,  in  fact, 
eight  years  instead  of  two,  before  the  whole  ten 
thousand  were  completed." 

The  skill  of  Mr.  Whitney  greatly  improved  the 
manufacture  of  arms  in  the  United  States,  and  his 
machinery  was  afterwards  adopted  in  nearly  all 
the  public  and  private  manufactories  of  arms 
throughout  the  country.  "  In  1822,  Mr.  Calhoun, 
then  Secretary  of  War,  admitted,  in  a  conversa- 
tion with  Mr.  Whitney,  that  the  government  were 
saving  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  at 
the  two  public  armories  alone,  by  his  improve- 
ments." Besides  this,  the  machinery  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  arms  was  applicable,  to  a 
great  extent,  to  many  manufactures  of  iron  and 
steel,  and  hence  became  of  very  general  utility. 

"  Under  the  system  of  Mr.  Whitney,"  says  a 
writer  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  nearly  all 
that  is  stated  in  this  sketch,*  "  the  several  parts 
of  the  musket  were  carried  along  through  the 
various  processes  of  manufacture,  in  lots  of  some 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  each.  In  their  various 
stages  of  progress,  they  were  made  to  undergo 
successive  operations  by  machinery,  which  not 
only  vastly  abridged  the  labor,  but  at  the  same 
time  so  fixed  and  determined  their  form  and  di- 


*  Silliman's  Journal,  vol.  21. 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


105 


mensions,  as  to  make  comparatively  little  skill 
necessary  in  the  manual  operations.  Such  was 
the  construction  and  arrangement  of  this  machi- 
nery, that  it  could  be  worked  by  persons  of  little 
or  no  experience  ;  and  yet  it  performed  the  work 
with  so  much  precision,  that  when,  in  the  later 
stages  of  the  process,  the  several  parts  of  the  mus- 
ket came  to  be  put  together,  they  were  as  readily 
adapted  to  each  other,  as  if  each  had  been  made 
for  its  respective  fellow.  A  lot  of  these  parts 
passed  through  the  hands  of  several  different 
workmen  successively  (and  in  some  cases  several 
times  returned,  at  intervals  more  or  less  re- 
mote, to  the  hands  of  the  same  workman),  each 
performing  upon  them  every  time  some  single 
and  simple  operation,  by  machinery  or  by  hand, 
until  they  were  completed.  Thus  Mr.  Whitney 
reduced  a  complex  business,  embracing  many 
ramifications,  almost  to  a  mere  succession  of  sim- 
ple processes,  and  was  thereby  enabled  to  make  a 
division  of  the  labor  among  his  workmen,  on  a 
principle  which  was  not  only  more  extensive,  but 
also  altogether  more  philosophical,  than  that  pur- 
sued in  the  English  method.  In  England,  the  la- 
bor of  making  a  musket  was  divided,  by  making 
the  different  workmen  the  manufacturers  of  differ- 
ent limbs ;  while  in  Mr.  Whitney's  system  the 
work  was  divided  with  reference  to  its  nature, 
and  several  workmen  performed  different  opera- 
tions on  the  same  limb.  It  will  be  readily  seen 
that  under  such  an  arrangement,  any  person  of 
ordinary  capacity  would  soon  acquire  sufficient 
dexterity  to  perform  a  branch  of  the  work.  In- 
deed, so  easy  did  Mr.  Whitney  find  it  to  instruct 
new  and  inexperienced  workmen,  that  he  uniform- 


166 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


ly  preferred  to  do  so,  rather  than  to  attempt  to 
combat  the  prejudices  of  those  who  had  learned 
the  business  under  a  different  system."  All  the 
parts  of  his  manufactory  were  arranged  so  as  to 
be  most  permanently  useful,  and  yet  with  a  re- 
gard to  their  beauty.  It  was  a  maxim  with  him 
that  there  is  nothing  worth  doing  that  is  not  worth 
doing  well. 

In  the  year  1812,  he  entered  into  another  con- 
tract with  the  United  States,  to  manufacture  fif- 
teen thousand  stand  of  arms.  He  also  made  an 
engagement  of  a  similar  nature  with  the  State  of 
New  York.  In  the  same  year,  he  applied  to 
Congress  for  a  renewal  of  his  patent  for  the  cot- 
ton gin.  The  grounds  of  the  application  were  the 
great  utility  of  the  invention  to  the  South,  —  the 
difficulties  he  had  before  labored  under  in  securing 
his  rights,  and  the  fact  that  from  some  States  he 
had  received  no  compensation  at  all,  and  from  no 
State  had  received  the  amount  of  half  a,  cent  per 
pound  on  the  cotton  cleaned  with  his  machines  in 
one  year.  "  Estimating  the  value  of  the  labor  of 
one  man  at  twenty  cents  per  day,  the  whole 
amount  which  had  been  received  by  him  for  his 
invention  was  not  equal  to  the  value  of  the  labor 
saved  in  one  hour,  by  his  machines  then  in  use  in 
the  United  States." 

Notwithstanding  this,  the  application  was  gen- 
erally opposed  by  the  Southern  members,  and  Was 
lost.  "  The  difficulties  with  which  I  have  had  to 
contend,"  said  Mr.  Whitney,  in  a  letter  to  Robert 
Fulton,  "  have  originated,  principally,  in  the  want 
of  a  disposition  in  mankind  to  do  justice.  My 
invention  was  new,  and  distinct  from  every  other ; 
it  stood  alone.    It  was  not  interwoven  with  any 


EH  WHITNEY. 


167 


thing  before  known  ;  and  it  can  seldom  happen 
that  an  invention  or  improvement  is  so  strongly- 
marked,  and  can  be  so  clearly  and  specifically 
identified ;  and  I  have  always  believed,  that  I 
should  have  had  no  difficulty  in  causing  my  rights 
to  be  respected,  if  it  had  been  less  valuable,  and 
been  used  only  by  a  small  portion  of  the  commu- 
nity. But  the  use  of  this  machine  being  im- 
mensely profitable  to  almost  every  planter  in  the 
cotton  districts,  all  were  interested  in  trespassing 
upon  the  patent  right,  and  each  kept  the  other  in 
countenance.  *  *  *  At  one  time,  but  few  men 
in  Georgia  dared  to  come  into  court,  and  testify 
to  the  most  simple  facts  within  their  knowledge 
relative  to  the  use  of  the  machine.  In  one  in- 
stance I  had  great  difficulty  in  proving  that  the 
machine  had  been  used  in  Georgia  ;  although  at 
the  same  moment,  there  were  three  separate  sets 
of  this  machinery  in  motion  within  fifty  yards  of 
the  building  in  which  the  court  sat,  and  all  so 
near  that  the  rattling  of  the  wheels  was  distinctly 
heard  on  the  steps  of  the  court-house !  " 

For  the  remaining  years  of  his  life,  Mr.  Whit- 
ney devoted  himself  with  great  success  to  the  va- 
rious concerns  of  his  armory,  all  the  operations 
of  which  he  personally  superintended.  As  early 
as  1822,  he  experienced  the  first  attack  of  the  dis- 
ease to  which  he  finally  yielded.  Its  progress 
was  attended  with  paroxysms  of  intense  pain. 
These  periods  of  suffering  recurred  at  intervals 
during  1823  and  1824.  In  November  of  the  lat- 
ter year,  the  gripe  of  the  disease  was  renewed  too 
firmly  to  be  unloosed ;  and,  after  two  months  of 
almost  constant  suffering,  he  expired  on  the  8th 
of  January,  1825. 


168 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


His  death  was  regarded  by  the  citizens  of  New 
Haven  as  a  public  calamity,  and  a  eulogy  was 
pronounced  over  his  grave  by  President  Day,  of 
Yale  College.  During  his  last  sickness,  his  mind 
was  as  active  as  ever ;  and  his  peculiar  taste  for 
invention  manifested  itself  partly  in  devising 
methods  for  alleviating,  so  far  as  mechanical 
means  could  avail,  the  distresses  of  his  terrible 
malady. 

Mr.  Whitney's  acquaintance  with  public  men 
was  very  general ;  and  by  all,  without  respect  to 
political  party,  he  was  highly  esteemed.  "  The 
operations  of  his  mind,"  it  has  been  said,  "  were 
not  so  remarkable  for  rapidity  as  for  precision. 
This  arose  not  from  want  of  mental  activity  and 
ardor  of  feeling,  but  from  habitual  caution,  and 
from  his  having  made  it  his  rule  to  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  short  of  perfection."  His  ingenuity 
showed  itself  in  the  minute  arrangements  of  his 
dwelling  and  the  buildings  about  it,  as  truly  as  in 
those  greater  works  by  which  he  became  so  wide- 
ly known.  "The  several  drawers  of  his  bureaus 
were  locked  by  a  single  movement  of  one  key  of 
a  peculiar  construction ;  and  an  attempt  to  open 
any  drawer  except  one,  would  prove  ineffectual 
even  with  the  right  key,  which,  however,  being 
applied  in  the  proper  place,  threw  all  the  bolts  at 
one  movement."  The  fastenings  to  the  doors  of 
his  barns  were  peculiar  and  ingenious.  Even  the 
halters,  by  which  the  cattle  were  tied,  were  so 
contrived  by  a  weight  at  one  end,  that  the  animal 
could  freely  move  his  head,  but  not  easily  draw 
out  the  rope  so  as  to  become  entangled  with  it. 

A  writer,  from  whom  we  have  quoted  before,* 


*  Hon.  S.  M.  Hopkins. 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


1C9 


says  of  him,  "  I  wish  I  had  time  to  bring  fully  to 
your  view,  for  your  consideration,  that  particular 
excellence  of  mind  in  which  he  excelled  all  men 
that  I  ever  heard  of.  I  do  not  mean  that  his 
power  of  forming  mechanical  combinations  was 
unlimited,  but  that  he  had  it  under  such  perfect 
control.  I  imagine  that  he  never  yet  failed  of 
accomplishing  any  result  of  mechanical  powers 
and  combinations  which  he  sought  for  ;  nor  ever 
sought  for  one  for  which  he  had  not  some  occa- 
sion, in  order  to  accomplish  the  business  in  hand. 
I  mean  that  his  invention  never  failed,  and  never 
ran  wild.  It  accomplished,  I  imagine,  without 
exception,  all  that  he  ever  asked  of  it,  and  no  more. 
I  emphasize  this  last  expression,  from  having  in 
mind  the  case  of  a  man,  whose  invention  appeared 
to  be  more  fertile  even  than  Whitney's ;  but  he 
had  it  under  no  control.  When  he  had  imagined 
and  half  executed  one  fine  thing,  his  mind  darted 
off  to  another,  and  he  perfected  nothing.  Whit- 
ney perfected  all  that  he  attempted  ;  carried  each 
invention  to  its  utmost  limit  of  usefulness  ;  and  then 
reposed  until  he  had  occasion  for  something  else." 

Mr.  Whitney's  manners  were  dignified  and 
courteous.  Even  during  his  severe  sickness,  he 
never  lost  his  sense  of  what  was  due  to  propriety 
and  decorum.  This  was  owing  in  part  to  a  lib- 
eral education,  which,  even  when  it  does  little  else 
for  a  man,  is  apt  to  confer  a  certain  undefinable 
ease  and  self-possession,  and  in  part  to  his  exten- 
sive intercourse  with  men  of  high  standing  in  so- 
ciety, and  of  various  attainment.  In  the  words  of 
the  author  of  his  memoir,*  "  It  no  doubt  also  con- 


*  Professor  Olmsted,  in  Silliman's  Journal. 
JVjOfcrff.—  — ■  15 


170  ELI  WHITNEY. 

tributed  not  a  little  to  conciliate  the  respect  of 
those  States  which  purchased  the  patent  right,  to 
find  in  the  person  of  the  patentee,  instead  of  some 
illiterate,  visionary  projector,  a  gentleman  of  ele- 
vated mind  and  cultivated  manners,  and  of  a  per- 
son elegant  and  dignified."  The  time  will  come, 
it  is  to  be  hoped,  when  it  will  not  be  thought  that 
a  man  must  necessarily  be  unfitted  for  the  higher 
arts  of  life,  or  the  pursuits  of  business,  by  having 
received  a  liberal  education.  Men  have  indeed 
passed  through  the  usual  routine  of  college  life, 
and  have  become  unfortunate  merchants,  poor  me- 
chanics, unsuccessful  farmers  ;  but  we  have  yet  to 
learn  that  their  education  made  them  so.  The 
fault  should  rather  be  charged  upon  their  lack  of 
those  qualities  which  would  give  success  under  any 
circumstances,  or  to  the  unfortunate  choice  of  a 
pursuit  for  which  they  were  radically  unfitted,  or 
to  some  of  those  unforeseen  or  uncontrollable  cir- 
cumstances against  which  neither  industry  nor 
sagacity  is  always  a  sure  safeguard. 

Mr.  Whitney's  moral  qualities  were  as  much 
cultivated  as  his  intellectual.  From  his  religious 
faith  he  derived  the  surest  consolations  under  the 
adversities  which  he  was  called  to  meet,  and 
amidst  the  sufferings  of  his  last  sickness.  We 
will  close  this  sketch  with  an  extract  from  the 
eulogy  pronounced  by  President  Day  :  —  "  The 
higher  qualities  of  his  mind,  instead  of  unfitting 
him  for  ordinary  duties,  were  firmly  tempered 
with  taste  and  judgment  in  the  business  of  life. 
His  manners  were  formed  by  an  extensive  inter- 
course with  the  best  society.  He  had  an  energy 
of  character  which  carried  him  through  difficulties 
too  formidable  for  ordinary  minds.    With  these 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


171 


advantages,  he  entered  on  the  career  of  life ;  his 
efforts  were  crowned  with  success.  An  ample 
competency  was  the  reward  of  his  industry  and 
skill.  He  had  gained  the  respect  of  all  classes  of 
the  community ;  his  opinions  were  regarded  with 
peculiar  deference,  by  the  man  of  science  as  well 
as  the  practical  artist.  His  large  and  liberal 
views,  his  knowledge  of  the  world,  the  wide  range 
of  his  observations,  his  public  spirit,  and  his  acts 
of  beneficence,  had  given  him  a  commanding  in- 
fluence in  society.  The  gentleness  and  refine- 
ment of  his  manners,  and  the  delicacy  of  his 
feelings  in  the  social  and  domestic  relations,  had 
endeared  him  to  a  numerous  circle  of  relatives 
and  friends. 

"  And  what  were  his  reflections  in  review  of  the 
whole,  in  connection  with  the  distressing  scenes 
of  the  last  period  of  life  ?  '  All  is  as  the  flower  of 
the  grass :  the  wind  passeth  over  it,  and  it  is 
gone.'  All  on  earth  is  transient ;  all  in  eternity 
is  substantial  and  enduring.  His  language  was, 
'  I  am  a  sinner ;  but  God  is  merciful.  The  only 
ground  of  acceptance  before  him  is  through  the 
great  Mediator.'  From  this  mercy,  through  this 
Mediator,  is  derived  our  solace  under  this  heavy 
bereavement.  On  this  rest  the  hopes  of  the 
mourners,  that  they  shall  meet  the  deceased  with 
joy  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just." 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


When  Sir  "Walter  Scott  was  engaged  in  pre- 
paring his  "  Border  Minstrelsy,"  lie  accidentally 
met  with  a  coadjutor  in  a  quarter  where  he  least 
expected  it.  There  might  be  often  seen  at  that 
time  (it  was  the  year  1800),  in  the  small  book- 
shop of  Mr.  Constable,  at  Edinburgh,  a  young 
man  of  uncouth  "  aspect  and  gestures,"  poring 
over  the  ancient  volumes  of  that  repository,  "  bal- 
anced on  a  ladder  with  a  folio  in  his  hand,  like 
Dominie  Sampson."  A  friend  of  Sir  Walter, 
who  visited  this  shop  for  the  sake  of  discovering 
whatever  in  it  could  be  of  any  assistance  in  the 
forthcoming  work,  fell  into  conversation  with  this 
stranger,  and  soon  discovered  that  his  mind  was 
crowded  with  all  sorts  of  learning,  and  especially 
that  he  was  familiar  with  the  early  Scottish  le- 
gends, traditions,  and  ballads.  The  young  man 
was  John  Leyden,  some  of  whose  productions  in 
verse,  principally  translations  from  the  Greek, 
Latin,  and  Northern  European  languages,  pub- 
lished in  the  Edinburgh  Magazine,  had  for  several 
years  excited  interest  and  curiosity.  He  was 
soon  numbered  among  the  friends  of  the  great 
Scottish  poet  and  novelist,  and  continued  in  inti- 
mate connection  with  him,  until  his  early  death. 

John  Leydex  was  born  at  Denholm,  a  small 
village  of  Roxburghshire,  Scotland,  on  the  8th  of 
September,  1775.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  of 
simple  manners  and  irreproachable  life.  Shortly 
after  the  birth  of  this  son,  his  parents  removed  to 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


173 


a  cottage  belonging  to  his  mother's  uncle,  where 
they  lived  for  sixteen  years.  The  family  was 
humble,  but  cheerful,  contented,  and  intelligent. 
Leyden  was  taught  to  read  by  his  grandmother, 
who  resided  in  the  family.  His  great  eagerness 
for  learning  early  began  to  manifest  itself.  The 
histories  of  the  Bible  attracted  his  attention,  and 
he  soon  learned  every  important  event  mentioned 
in  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament. 

There  were  few  books  in  the  cottage  except 
the  Bible,  and  such  others  as  were  common  to  the 
Scotch  peasants  ;  but  his  young  mind  was  strongly 
excited  by  the  ballads  and  legends  of  the  country, 
and  by  the  stories  recited  to  him  by  a  blind  uncle 
of  his  mother.  He  was  ten  years  old  before  he 
went  to  school,  and  even  then  his  opportunities 
for  learning  were  very  small.  The  school-house 
was  two  miles  from  his  father's  cottage ;  and  the 
school  was  broken  up,  soon  after  he  began  to  at- 
tend it,  by  the  death  of  its  master.  But,  during 
this  short  period  of  study,  he  had  learned  some- 
thing, and  his  mind  was  roused  to  activity.  For 
want  of  other  subjects  to  dwell  upon,  he  became 
more  and  more  deeply  interested  in  the  traditions 
of  the  country.  The  romantic  and  superstitious 
tales  of  the  nursery  became  food  to  his  mind. 
When  he  was  eleven  years  old,  a  companion  gave 
him  some  account  of  an  odd  volume  of  the  "  Ara- 
bian Nights'  Entertainments,"  which  belonged  to 
a  blacksmith's  apprentice,  who  lived  some  miles 
distant.  It  was  winter  ;  but  the  boy's  mind,  full 
of  the  wonders  he  had  heard,  could  only  be  sat- 
isfied with  a  sight  of  the  wonderful  volume. 
He  started  early  in  the  morning,  and  almost  at 
daybreak  reached  the  blacksmith's  shop.  The 
15* 


174 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


apprentice  was  not  at  home,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  travel  still  further  to  find  him.  He  requested 
the  privilege  of  reading  the  book  in  presence  of 
the  owner,  for  to  borrow  so  great  a  treasure  was 
more  than  he  could  expect.  His  humble  request 
was  refused.  The  little  boy  could  not,  however, 
give  up  his  cherished  hopes ;  and  he  actually  stood 
all  day  beside  the  ungenerous  apprentice,  till  the 
lad,  ashamed  of  his  own  churlishness  or  worn  out 
by  Leyden's  perseverance,  actually  gave  him  the 
book.  He  had  suffered  hunger  and  fatigue,  but 
he  had  gained  his  treasure.  Perhaps,  according 
to  the  suggestion  of  Sir  W alter  Scott,  "  these  fas- 
cinating tales,  obtained  with  so  much  difficulty, 
may  have  given  his  mind  that  decided  turn  to- 
wards oriental  learning,  wrhich  was  displayed 
through  his  whole  life,  and  illustrated  by  his  re- 
gretted and  too  early  decease." 

Another  teacher  came  to  the  school,  and  taught 
him  a  smattering  of  Latin  ;  another  still,  gave  him 
a  little  knowledge  of  arithmetic.  In  the  mean- 
time, his  desire  for  learning  became  so  great,  that 
his  parents  determined  if  possible  to  educate  him, 
intending  that  he  should  one  day  become  a  minis- 
ter in  the  Scottish  church.  He  was  accordingly 
placed  for  two  years  under  the  charge  of  Mr. 
Duncan,  a  Cameronian  minister  at  Denholm.  In 
November,  1790,  with  "little  Latin,  and  less 
Greek,"  he  entered  the  University  at  Edinburgh. 
To  the  well-educated  and  well-bred  students  of 
the  University,  he  was  an  object  of  curiosity  and 
of  some  merriment.  Professor  Dalzel  used  to 
say,  that  he  had  seldom  known  any  young  man 
who  at  first  appeared  worse  prepared  for  college, 
and  who  so  speedily  surmounted  the  difficulties 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


175 


under  which  he  had  labored.  When  he  first  rose 
to  recite,  his  rustic  air,  his  undaunted  manner,  his 
high  harsh  voice,  his  provincial  accent,  provoked 
the  laughter  of  the  class,  and  nearly  destroyed 
the  gravity  of  the  professor.  It  was  soon  per- 
ceived, however,  that  he  had  acquired  a  vast  store 
of  information;  and  although,  in  his  processes  of 
study,  he  had  not  thought  it  necessary  to  become 
master  of  grammatical  rules,  his  strength  and 
acuteness  of  mind  soon  made  themselves  felt. 
To  every  branch  of  learning  he  applied  himself 
with  most  determined  resolution.  The  Greek 
language  was  his  favorite,  and  he  became  familiar 

CO  ' 

with  its  best  authors.  Besides  the  ordinary  col- 
lege studies,  he  plunged  with  great  ardor  into 
whatever  others  happened  to  attract  his  attention. 
It  was  his  habit  to  devote  himself  with  his  whole 
soul,  for  the  time  being,  to  whatever  he  undertook, 
until  he  had  in  some  measure  mastered  its  diffi- 
culties, and  had  become  so  familiar  with  it,  that  at 
a  future  time  he  could  pursue  it  with  apparent 
ease.  He  used  to  say,  when  objections  were 
made  to  the  miscellaneous  nature  of  his  studies  — 
"  Never  mind  ;  —  if  you  have  the  scaffolding  ready, 
you  can  run  up  the  masonry  when  you  please." 
It  must  not,  however,  be  inferred  that  because  his 
retentive  memory  could  thus  accomplish  much, 
the  same  method  would  be  best  for  another.  By 
his  perseverance  and  strong  determination,  he 
became  acquainted,  not  only  with  Greek  and 
Latin,  but  with  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  Ger- 
man, and  Icelandic;  and  also  studied  Hebrew, 
Arabic,  and  Persian. 

Although  he  possessed  so  decided  a  talent  for 
the  acquisition  of  languages,  he  engaged  eagerly 


176 


.JOHN  LEYDEN. 


in  various  other  branches  of  study.  Mathematics 
was  the  only  one  for  which  he  had  little  taste, 
and  in  which  he  made  the  least  advance.  His 
vacations,  which  occurred  in  the  summer,  he  spent 
at  home  ;  reviewing  and  arranging,  somewhat  more 
methodically,  what  he  had  acquired  during  the 
winter  at  the  University.  He  fitted  up  a  sort  of 
furnace  for  chemical  experiments  in  a  secluded 
part  of  the  glen,  near  the  village ;  but  his  chief 
place  of  study  (his  father's  cottage  not  being  large 
enough  to  afford  him  any)  was  the  village  church. 
Into  this  singular  retirement  he  found  his  way 
through  an  open  window :  a  retired  pew  served 
as  a  depository  of  his  library  and  cabinet  of  curious 
specimens ;  and  the  sacredness  of  the  place,  as 
well  as  certain  superstitious  fears  connected  with 
it,  to  which  Leyden  now  and  then  added  some 
new  element  by  means  of  tradition  or  story,  pre- 
served him  from  disagreeable  intrusions. 

The  number  of  his  books  was  small,  and  the 
country  society,  congenial  to  him,  very  restricted. 
Froissart's  Chronicles,  which  he  found  in  the  li- 
brary of  a  neighbouring  gentleman,  was  an  inesti- 
mable treasure.  At  college  he  gradually  became 
intimate  with  the  best  scholars,  among  whom  was 
the  poet  Campbell.  After  spending  five  or  six 
years  at  Edinburgh,  through  the  kindness  of 
Professor  Dalzel,  he  obtained  a  situation  as  a  pri- 
vate tutor  in  a  gentleman's  family,  which  he  re- 
tained until,  in  1798,  he  accompanied  two  young 
gentlemen  to  the  University  of  St.  Andrew's. 

The  secluded  situation,  the  great  antiquity,  and 
the  decayed  splendor  of  this  northern  seat  of 
learning,  quite  suited  his  fancy ;  while  its  rich  li- 
braries gave  him  the  opportunity  of  pursuing  his 


JOHN  LEYDEN.  177 


favorite  studies.  While  at  St.  Andrew's,  the  fame 
of  Mungo  Park,  whose  travels  had  just  become 
known,  excited  his  interest  in  Africa.  He  was 
fascinated  by  the  strangeness  of  the  stories  which 
he  heard  of  that  singular  country,  and  devoted 
himself  for  a  time  to  study  its  antiquities  and  his- 
tory. As  a  result  of  his  inquiries,  he  published, 
in  1799,  an  octavo  volume,  entitled  "A  Histor- 
ical and  Philosophical  Sketch  of  the  Discoveries 
and  Settlements  of  the  Europeans  in  Northern 
and  Western  Africa,  at  the  close  of  the  18th  cen- 
tury." He  subsequently  proposed  to  extend  this 
to  four  volumes,  and  had  made  preparations  for 
the  purpose,  and  even  completed  arrangements 
for  publishing  it  with  Messrs.  Longman  &  Co., 
when  other  events  changed  entirely  the  course  of 
his  life.  The  volume  which  was  published,  he 
wrote  in  about  six  weeks,  and  that  too  when  his 
health  was  not  very  good.  During  the  same  pe- 
riod of  his  life,  he  was  writing  articles  for  the 
New  London  Review,  and  occasionally  sending  to 
the  Edinburgh  Magazine  those  short  poems, 
translated  from  various  languages,  to  which  refer- 
ence was  made  at  the  beginning  of  this  sketch. 

The  winter  of  1799-1800,  he  spent  in  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  greatly  enlarged  the  circle  of  his 
literary  acquaintance,  while  he  still  pursued  his 
studies  with  the  utmost  devotion.  His  abstemious- 
ness was  remarkable.  He  seemed  to  have  no  need 
of  food,  often  during  the  entire  day  eating  nothing 
but  a  morsel  of  bread ;  and  being  almost  as  indif- 
ferent to  sleep.  When  interrupted  during  the 
day  by  the  demands  of  society,  he  would  make  up 
the  deficiency  by  studying  nearly  all  the  night. 
His  pecuniary  resources  were  very  small ;  but, 


178 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


with  a  noble  resolution,  he  preserved  his  indepen- 
dence by  severe  economy.  Never  in  his  life  did 
wealth  seem  to  have  peculiar  charms  for  him,  nor 
poverty  its  usual  evils.  In  1800,  he  was  ordained 
as  a  minister  in  the  Scottish  church ;  but  neither 
his  habits  nor  character  fitted  him  for  the  sacred 
calling.  lie  never  entered  upon  its  solemn  du- 
ties farther  than  to  preach  a  few  sermons.  With 
greater  zeal  he  devoted  himself  to  literature.  He 
made  a  tour  to  the  Highlands  and  the  Hebrides, 
and  "  investigated  the  decaying  traditions  of  Cel- 
tic manners  and  story,  wrhich  are  yet  preserved  in 
the  wild  districts  of  Moidart  and  Knoidart." 

Having  become  acquainted  with  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  as  before  suggested,  just  as  that  poet  was 
preparing  his  "  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Bor- 
der," he  entered  into  the  publication  with  charac- 
teristic zeal,  inspired  not  only  by  his  friendship  for 
Sir  Walter,  but  by  his  native  love  of  the  subject, 
and  patriotic  attachment  to  Scotland.  "  An  inter- 
esting fragment,"  says  Scott,  "  had  been  obtained 
of  an  ancient  historical  ballad  ;  but  the  remainder, 
to  the  great  disturbance  of  the  editor  and  his  co- 
adjutor, was  not  to  be  recovered.  Two  days 
afterwards,  while  the  editor  was  sitting  with  some 
company  after  dinner,  a  sound  was  heard  at  a 
distance  like  that  of  the  whistling  of  a  tempest 
through  the  torn  rigging  of  the  vessel  which  scuds 
before  it.  The  sounds  increased  as  they  ap- 
proached nearer,  and  Leyden  (to  the  great  aston- 
ishment of  such  of  the  guests  as  did  not  know 
him)  burst  into  the  room,  chanting  the  desiderated 
ballad,  with  the  most  enthusiastic  gestures,  and 
all  the  energy  of  the  saw-tones  of  his  voice.  It 
turned  out  that  he  had  walked  between  forty  and 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


179 


fifty  miles,  and  back  again,  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  visiting  an  old  person  who  possessed  this  pre- 
cious remnant  of  antiquity." 

In  1801,  he  published  a  new  edition  of  an  old 
tract,  called  the  "  Complaynt  of  Scotland."  This 
singular  production  of  the  early  part  of  the  16th 
century  treats  of  the  public  and  private  life  of 
Scotland,  its  poetry,  music,  and  learning ;  and 
gave  Leyden  an  opportunity,  in  a  preliminary  dis- 
sertation and  by  notes,  to  show  his  abundant 
stores  of  antiquarian  knowledge.  "  The  intimate 
acquaintance  which  he  has  displayed  with  Scottish 
antiquities  of  every  kind,  from  manuscript  histo- 
ries and  rare  chronicles  down  to  the  tradition  of 
the  peasant,  and  the  rhymes  even  of  the  nursery, 
evince  an  extent  of  research,  power  of  arrange- 
ment, and  facility  of  recollection,  which  has  never 
been  equalled  in  this  department." 

He  also  wrote  a  poem,  entitled  "  Scenes  of  In- 
fancy," which  was  afterwards  published,  and  in 
which  he  commemorates  the  circumstance  of  his 
own  youth,  and  the  traditions  of  his  native  vale 
of  Teviot.  In  the  mean  time  he  became  filled 
with  a  desire  to  travel:  to  extend  the  bounda- 
ries of  geographical  and  literary  knowledge  be- 
came, he  said,  "  his  thought  by  day,  and  his 
dream  by  night,  and  the  discoveries  of  Mungo 
Park  haunted  his  very  slumbers."  He  actually 
began  to  correspond  with  the  African  Society, 
with  a  view  to  explore,  under  their  auspices,  the 
interior  of  those  inhospitable  regions  which  have 
been  the  grave  of  so  many  enterprising  travellers. 

When  his  serious  purpose  became  fully  known 
to  his  friends,  they  felt  extremely  anxious  to  di- 
vert him  from  the  project.    They  thought  that 


180 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


his  enthusiasm  and  ability  to  acquire  foreign  lan- 
guages would  find  ample  scope  in  the  British 
East  Indies,  and  accordingly  applied  to  those  in 
power  for  an  appointment.  Through  the  kindness 
of  Mr.  Dundas,  one  was  promised ;  but  the  only 
place  at  his  disposal  was  that  of  surgeon's  assistant. 
This  could  only  be  held  by  one  who  had  a  med- 
ical degree,  and  who  should  pass  a  satisfactory 
examination  before  the  medical  board  of  the  India 
House.  Only  six  months  were  wanting  before 
the  examination  must  take  place.  Leyden  was 
not  discouraged.  His  determination  rose  in  pro- 
portion as  the  attempt  seemed  formidable.  What 
would  have  utterly  appalled  another,  inspired  him 
with  fresh  zeal.  After  incredible  exertion,  the 
task  was  accomplished.  He  received  his  diploma' 
as  surgeon  at  Edinburgh,  and  the  degree  of  M.D. 
at  St.  Andrew's. 

Leyden's  fame  as  a  scholar  was  now  extended 
wide,  and  he  numbered  among  his  acquaintances 
and  friends  many  men  in  the  kingdom  of  high 
note  as  statesmen,  poets,  and  scholars.  Among 
the  scholars  was  Alexander  Murray  (a  sketch  of 
whose  life  is  given  in  the  first  volume  of  this 
compilation)  ;  among  the  future  statesmen  was 
Brougham ;  among  the  poets,  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
In  December,  1802,  he  received  orders  to  join  the 
fleet  of  Indiamen.  He  immediately  went  to  Lon- 
don, but,  from  over-exertion  and  anxiety  of  mind, 
found  himself  unable  to  join  the  ship  to  which  he 
was  destined.  It  was  fortunate  for  him  that  it 
was  so,  as  the  vessel  was  wrecked  in  going  down 
the  river,  and  a  large  number  of  the  passengers 
were  drowned.  In  consequence  of  this  event  and 
the  changes  attendant  upon  it,  he  did  not  sail  until 


4*7 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


181 


April,  1803,  when  he  bade  farewell  to  England, 
never  to  see  her  again.  "  Thus  set  forth  on  his 
voyage,"  says  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "  perhaps  the 
first  British  traveller  that  ever  sought  India, 
moved  neither  by  the  love  of  wealth  nor  of  power ; 
and  who,  despising  alike  the  luxuries  commanded 
by  the  one,  and  the  pomp  attached  to  the  other, 
was  guided  solely  by  the  wish  of  extending  our 
knowledge  of  Oriental  literature,  and  distinguish- 
ing himself  as  its  most  successful  cultivator." 
His  commission  as  surgeon  was  but  a  cover  to 
the  learned  pursuits  in  which  he  so  vigorously 
engaged. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  India,  he  was  attached 
to  a  commission  for  surveying  the  districts  of  the 
Mysore,  and  began  to  form  some  deliberate  plan 
for  active  exertion.  "  There  were  but  two  routes," 
he  says  in  a-  letter,  "  in  a  person's  choice ;  first, 
to  sink  into  a  mere  professional  drudge,  and,  by 
strict  economy,  endeavor  to  collect  a  few  thou- 
sand pounds  in  the  course  of  twenty  years ;  or, 
secondly,  to  aspire  beyond  it,  and,  by  superior 
knowledge  of  India,  its  laws,  relations,  politics, 
and  languages,  to  claim  a  situation  somewhat 
more  respectable."  The  difficulties  were  greater 
than  he  anticipated.  His  pay  was  small ;  his  ex- 
penses in  prosecuting  his  studies,  large.  Still  he 
persevered,  and,  besides  performing  his  duties  as 
surgeon,  marching  by  day  and  night  in  a  hot  cli- 
mate, and  attending  to  the  hospital,  he  devoted 
more  or  less  attention  to  the  "Arabic,  Persic, 
Hindostani,  Mahratta,  Tamal,  Telinga,  Canara, 
Sanscrit,  Malayalam,  Malay,  and  Armenian."  It. 
is  no  wonder  that  his  health,  before  long,  gave 
way  under  this  pressure  of  labor.    After  trying 


182 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


various  situations  in  the  Presidency  of  Madras, 
he  concluded  to  sail  for  the  Prince  of  Wales 
Island.  Although  thus  disappointed,  he  was  in 
no  manner  disheartened,  and  wrote  to  his  friends 
in  a  style  of  gay  exaggeration,  which  exhibited 
the  perfect  buoyancy  of  his  spirits.  After  de- 
scribing his  studies  and  labors,  he  goes  on  :  "  To 
what  I  have  told  you,  you  are  to  add  constant  and 
necessary  exposure  to  the  sun,  damps  and  dews 
from  the  Ganges,  and  putrid  exhalations  of 
marshes,  before  I  had  been  properly  accustomed 
to  the  climate  ;  constant  rambling  in  the  haunts  of 
tigers,  leopards,  bears,  and  serpents  of  thirty  or 
forty  feet  long,  that  make  nothing  of  swallowing  a 
buffalo,  by  way  of  demonstrating  their  appetite  in 
a  morning ;  together  with  smaller  and  more  dan- 
gerous snakes,  whose  haunt  are  perilous,  and  bite 
deadly  ;  and  you  have  a  faint  idea  of  a  situation, 
in  which,  with  health,  I  lived  as  happy  as  the  day 
was  long.  It  was  occasionally  diversified  with 
rapid  jaunts  of  a  hundred  miles  or  so,  as  fast  as 
horse  or  bearers  could  carry  me,  by  night  or  day  — 
swimming  through  rivers  —  afloat  in  an  old  brass 
kettle  at  midnight !  —  O,  I  could  tell  you  adven- 
tures to  outrival  any  witch  that  ever  swam  in  egg- 
shell or  sieve  ;  but  you  would  undoubtedly  imagine 
I  wanted  to  impose  on  you,  were  I  to  relate  what 
I  have  seen  and  passed  through.  No  !  I  certain- 
ly shall  never  repent  of  having  come  to  India. 
It  has  awakened  energies  in  me  that  I  scarcely 
imagined  that  I  possessed." 

At  Puloo  Penang  (or  Prince  of  Wales  Island) 
his  time  did  not  pass  unoccupied.  He  visited  the 
coasts  of  Sumatra,  and  the  Malayan  peninsula, 
and  picked  up  the  materials  for  an  essay,  pub- 


jr.  /•  SOI 

JOHN  LETDEN.  183 

lished  in  the  10th  vol.  of  the  Asiatic  Researches, 
on  the  Languages  and  Literature  of  the  Indo- 
Chinese  Nations. 

Although  much  occupied  while  at  this  island, 
his  spirits  were  sometimes  much  depressed,  as 
seems  evident  from  certain  lines  which  he  wrote 
for  New  Year's  day,  1806.  The  last  two  stanzas 
are  the  following :  — 

"  Friends  of  my  youth,  for  ever  dear, 
Where  are  you  from  this  bosom  fled  1 
A  lonely  man  1  linger  here, 
Like  one  that  has  been  long  time  dead. 

Foredoomed  to  seek  an  early  tomb, 
For  whom  the  pallid  grave-flowers  blow, 
I  hasten  on  my  destined  doom, 
And  sternly  mock  at  joy  or  woe !  " 

In  1806,  he  removed  from  Penang  to  Calcutta, 
and,  through  the  influence  of  Lord  Minto,  was 
appointed  a  professor  in  the  Bengal  College ;  but 
soon  after  was  made  Judge,  and  was  thus  called 
to  act  in  a  judicial  capacity  among  the  natives ; 
for  which,  his  knowledge  of  their  language,  man- 
ners and  customs  well  fitted  him.  He  had  now  a 
considerable  salary  ;  but,  after  remitting  a  part  to 
his  father  in  Scotland,  he  devoted  the  remainder 
entirely  to  advance  his  acquaintance  with  Eastern 
literature.  He  avoided  the  expensive  establish- 
ments and  ordinary  luxuries  of  the  East,  and  re- 
mained, as  he  was  in  Scotland,  a  frugal,  patient, 
scholar. 

In  1809,  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of 
the  Court  of  Requests  in  Calcutta  ;  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  having  resigned  this  office,  he  obtained 
that  of  Assay -Master  of  the  Mint.  In  1811, 
the  British  government  having  undertaken  an  ex- 


184 


JOHN*  LEYDEN. 


pedition  against  the  island  of  Java,  Dr.  Leyden 
was  called  to  accompany  Lord  Minto,  both  that 
he  might  investigate  the  manners,  language,  and 
literature  of  the  tribes  on  the  island,  and  because 
it  was  thought  that  his  extensive  knowledge  of 
Eastern  life  might  be  of  importance  to  the  Gov- 
ernor-General in  negociations  with  the  natives. 
When  they  reached  the  island,  his  enthusiastic 
desire  of  being  the  first  Briton  who  should  land, 
led  him  to  throw  himself  into  the  surf,  and  thus 
reach  the  shore  among  the  foremost.  Immediate- 
ly afterwards,  as  soon  as  the  troops  took  pos- 
session of  Batavia,  he  hastened  to  examine  a  col- 
lection of  Indian  manuscripts,  stored  in  a  large 
warehouse.  On  leaving  the  ill-ventilated  apart- 
ment, he  was  attacked  with  a  fit  of  shivering. 
This  was  the  premonitory  stroke  of  the  fever. 
In  three  days  he  was  no  more. 

Thus  died,  August  21,  1811,  at  the  early  age 
of  thirty-six,  one  whose  literary  promise  was 
great,  and  whose  actual  performance  was  consid- 
erable. He  aimed  at  accomplishing  more  in  the 
way  of  Oriental  learning  than  any  who  had  pre- 
ceded him  in  that  difficult  field.  Had  he  lived, 
he  would  probably,  with  his  industry  and  enthu- 
siasm, have  attained  the  goal  of  his  wishes.  But 
his  extraordinary  zeal  led  him  to  be  careless  of 
the  means  of  preserving  life  and  health.  When 
at  Mysore,  shortly  after  his  arrival  from  England, 
he  was  so  ill  that  his  physician  despaired  of  his 
life ;  but  the  endeavors  of  his  friends  to  induce 
him  to  relax  his  studies  were  vain.  "  When  un- 
able to  sit  up,  he  used  to  prop  himself  up  with 
pillows,  and  continue  his  translations.  One  day, 
General  Malcolm  came  in,  and  the  physician  said 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


185 


to  him,  <  I  am  glad  you  are  here ;  you  will  be 
able  to  persuade  Leyden  to  attend  to  my  advice. 
I  have  told  him  before,  and  now  I  repeat,  that  he 
will  die  if  he  does  not  leave  off  his  studies  and  re- 
main quiet.'  '  Very  well,  Doctor,'  exclaimed 
Leyden,  'you  have  done  your  duty,  but  you 
must  now  hear  me  ;  I  cannot  be  idle,  and  whether 
I  die  or  live,  the  wheel  must  go  round  to  the  last ;' 
and  he  actually  continued,  under  the  depression 
of  a  fever  and  a  liver-complaint,  to  study  more 
than  ten  hours  each  day."  His  great  abstemious- 
ness doubtless  contributed  greatly  to  his  usual 
good  health. 

His  method  of  studying  was  somewhat  singular. 
The  following  account  is  from  the  pen  of  General 
Sir  John  Malcolm :  —  "It  is  not  easy  to  convey 
an  idea  of  the  method  which  Dr.  Leyden  used  in 
his  studies,  or  to  describe  the  unconquerable  ar- 
dour with  which  these  were  pursued.  During 
his  early  residence  in  India,  I  had  a  particular 
opportunity  of  observing  both.  When  he  read  a 
lesson  in  Persian,  a  person  near  him,  whom  he 
had  taught,  wrote  down  each  word  on  a  long  slip 
of  paper,  which  was  afterwards  divided  into  as 
many  pieces  as  there  were  words,  and  pasted  in 
alphabetical  order,  under  different  heads  of  verbs, 
nouns,  &c,  into  a  blank  book  that  formed  a  vocab- 
ulary of  each  day's  lesson.  All  this  he  had,  in  a 
few  hours,  instructed  a  very  ignorant  native  to 
do ;  and  this  man  he  used,  in  his  broad  accent,  to 
call  '  one  of  his  mechanical  aids.' "  —  "  His  mem- 
ory was  most  tenacious,  and  he  sometimes  loaded 
it  with  lumber.  When  he  was  at  Mysore,  an  ar- 
gument occurred  upon  a  point  of  English  history . 

vai^ji-—   — 46* 


186 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


it  was  agreed  to  refer  it  to  Leyden,  and,  to  the 
astonishment  of  all  parties,  he  repeated  verbatim 
the  whole  of  an  act  of  parliament  in  the  reign  of 
James,  relative  to  Ireland,  which  decided  the 
point  in  dispute.  On  being  asked  how  he  came 
to  charge  his  memory  with  such  extraordinary 
matter,  he  said  that  several  years  before,  when  he 
was  writing  on  the  changes  which  had  taken 
place  in  the  English  language,  this  act  was  one 
of  the  documents  to  which  he  had  referred  as  a 
specimen  of  the  style  of  that  age,  and  that  he  had 
retained  every  word  in  his  memory." 

In  his  manners  he  was  eccentric  and  rough, 
and  he  often  trespassed  against  the  outward  laws 
of  ceremony.  His  voice  was  harsh  ;  and  in  con- 
versation, especially  in  argument,  he  used  it  in 
its  loudest  key,  and  never  hesitated  to  express 
himself  in  the  most  vigorous  language.  But  his 
defects  were  atoned  for  by  great  virtues.  His 
temper  "  was  mild  and  generous,  and  he  could 
hear,  with  perfect  good  humor,  raillery  on  his 
foibles."  He  was  full  of  good  humor,  kindness, 
and  magnanimity,  and,  with  all  his  boldness,  never 
intentionally  wounded  the  feelings  of  others.  He 
won  the  undoubted  love  of  many  men  of  great 
minds,  and  was  favored  with  the  friendship  of 
women  of  high  culture  and  refinement.  "  No 
man,"  says  Lord  Minto,  "  whatever  his  condition 
might  be,  ever  possessed  a  mind  so  entirely  ex- 
empt from  every  sordid  passion,  so  negligent  of 
fortune,  and  all  its  grovelling  pursuits,  —  in  a 
word,  so  entirely  disinterested,  —  nor  ever  owned 
a  spirit  more  firmly  and  nobly  independent." 

His  literary  and  poetical  works  have  been  pu 


JOHN  LEYDEN. 


187 


Hshed  since  his  death.  In  1826,  the  Memoirs 
of  Baber*  chiefly  translated  by  him,  and  com- 
pleted by  his  friend  William  Erskine,  were  pub- 
lished for  the  benefit  of  his  father.  His  literary 
property  was  committed  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Heber. 
When  Sir  John  Malcolm  visited  Lord  Minto, 
in  Roxburghshire,  he  inquired  for  the  elder 
Leyden,  and,  in  the  course  of  the  conversation 
with  him,  he  expressed  his  regret  at  the  delays  in 
realizing  the  small  property  of  the  son ;  and  "  re- 
marked that  he  was  authorized  by  Mr.  Heber  to 
say,  that  such  manuscripts  as  were  likely  to  pro- 
duce a  profit  should  be  published  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble for  the  benefit  of  his  family."  "  Sir,"  said  the 
old  man  with  animation  and  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  "  God  blessed  me  with  a  son,  who,  had  he 
been  spared,  would  have  been  an  honor  to  his 
country !  As  it  is,  I  beg  of  Mr.  Heber,  in  any 
publication  he  may  intend,  to  think  more  of  his 
memory  than  of  my  want.  The  money  you  speak 
of  would  be  a  great  comfort  to  me  in  my  old  age  ; 
but,  thanks  be  to  the  Almighty,  I  have  good 
health,  and  can  still  earn  my  livelihood ;  and  I 
pray  therefore  of  you  and  Mr.  Heber  to  publish 
nothing  that  is  not  for  my  son's  good  fame."  One 
can  hardly  find,  in  the  lower  or  the  higher  walks 
of  life,  the  expression  of  a  more  delicate  and  ten- 
der regard  for  the  good  name  of  a  departed  friend. 

Leyden  was  remembered  with  great  affection 
by  his  friends,  and  by  few  with  more  sincerity  and 
warmth  of  feeling  than  by  Scott,  who  gives  a 


*  An  interesting  account  of  this  remarkable  work,  written 
in  the  early  part  of  the  16th  century,  may  be  found  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  for  June,  1827. 


188 


JOHN  LETDEN. 


brief  tribute  to  his  memory  in  "  The  Lord  of  the 
Isles." 

"  The  clans  of  Jura's  rugged  coast 

Lord  Ronald's  call  obey, 
And  Scarba's  isle,  whose  tortured  shore 
Still  rings  to  Corrievreken's, 

And  lonely  Colonsay :  — 
Scenes  sung  by  him  who  sings  no  more ! 
His  bright  and  brief  career  is  o'er, 

And  mute  his  tuneful  strains  ; 
Quenched  is  his  lamp  of  varied  lore, 
That  loved  the  light  of  song  to  pour : 
A  distant  and  a  deadly  shore 

Has  Leyden's  cold  remains." 

Lord  of  the  Isles. — Canto  4,  st.  11. 


ROBERT  STEPHENS. 


The  early  printers  were,  almost  of  necessity, 
scholars.  Books  being  published  mainly  for  the 
use  of  the  learned,  they  were  obliged,  not 
merely  to  attend  to  the  mechanical  part  of  their 
trade,  but  to  collate  manuscripts  and  determine 
the  true  reading  of  the  text.  Their  influence  in 
advancing  the  general  interests  of  society,  by  dif- 
fusing knowledge,  can  hardly  be  overrated.  Aldus 
Manutius,  in  Italy,  in  the  early  part  of  the  16th 
century,  had  a  reputation  for  learning  and  critical 
skill  which  gained  him  the  friendship  of  the  most 
distinguished  scholars  in  the  world.  Under  cir- 
cumstances of  great  difficulty,  he  produced  the 
earliest  printed  edition  of  many  of  the  Greek 
and  Roman  classics.  He  published,  also,  Greek 
and  Latin  grammars,  and  the  earliest  Greek  and 
Latin  dictionary ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  gave 
lectures  on  ancient  literature.  His  press  was  es- 
tablished at  Venice,  and  the  symbol  on  the  title- 
page  of  his  books  was  a  fish  entwined  about  an 
anchor ;  a  symbol  which  some  modern  printers 
have  adopted,  while  they  have  also  entitled  them- 
selves his  disciples.  His  trade  and  his  learning 
were  inherited  by  his  son. 

A  circumstance  of  apparently  slight  importance, 
in  connection  with  the  press  of  Manutius,  has 
rendered  the  year  1501  "a  sort  of  epoch  in  liter- 
ary history.  It  was,  simply,  that  in  that  year  he 
introduced  a  new  Italic  character,  more  easily 
read  than  the  Roman ;  and  what  was  of  still  more 


190 


ROBERT  STEPHENS. 


consequence,  began  to  print  octavos  and  duodeci- 
mos, instead  of  the  old  folios.  '  With  what  pleas- 
ure,1 says  a  French  historian,  'must  the  studious 
man,  the  lover  of  letters,  have  beheld  these  be- 
nevolent octavos,  these  Virgils  and  Horaces,  con- 
tained in  one  little  volume,  which  he  might  carry- 
in  his  pocket  while  travelling  or  in  a  walk  ;  which, 
besides,  cost  him  hardly  more  than  two  of  our 
francs ;  so  that  he  could  get  a  dozen  of  them  for 
the  price  of  one  of  those  folios,  that  had  hitherto 
been  the  sole  furniture  of  his  library.  The  ap- 
pearance of  these  correct  and  well-printed  octavos 
ought  to  be  as  much  remarked  as  the  substitution 
of  printed  books  for  manuscripts  itself.'" 

Contemporary  with  this  family  in  Italy,  was 
that  of  the  Stephenses  in  France.  Robert,  one 
of  the  most  eminent,  was  born  at  Paris,  in  1503. 
His  father  was  a  printer,  remarkable  for  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  editions.  His  mark  was  the  old 
arms  of  the  University  of  Paris,  with  the  motto, 
Plus  olei  quam  vini.  After  the  death  of  his 
father,  Robert  worked  for  a  time  with  Simon  de 
Colines,  who  had  been  his  father's  partner ;  and 
during  this  time  published  an  edition  of  the  New 
Testament,  more  correct  and  more  convenient 
than  any  which  preceded  it.  This,  however,  ren- 
dered him  suspected,  by  the  Doctors  of  the  Sor- 
bonne  (as  the  Theological  College  was  called), 
of  a  tendency  towards  Protestantism.  The  work 
had  a  rapid  sale.  About  the  year  1526,  he  dis- 
solved partnership  with  de  Colines,  and  established 
a  press  of  his  own.  He  had  previously  married 
Petronilla,  the  daughter  of  the  celebrated  printer 
Jodocus  Badius.  Her  learning  was  a  fit  accom- 
paniment to  that  of  her  husband,  as  she  taught 


ROBERT  STEPHENS. 


191 


Latin  to  her  household  so  effectually,  that  every 
member  of  it  could  speak  that  language.  The 
year  after  he  established  himself  alone,  he  pub- 
lished one  of  the  treatises  of  Cicero  ;  and,  from  that 
time  till  his  death,  he  hardly  suffered  a  twelve- 
month to  pass  without  sending  forth  a  new  edition 
of  some  one  of  the  classics,  with  greater  accuracy 
and  beauty  than  had  been  seen  before.  In  order 
to  insure  correctness,  he  was  accustomed  to  hang 
his  proof  sheets  in  a  conspicuous  place,  and  offer 
a  reward  to  him  who  should  detect  an  error. 

A  work  upon  which  he  expended  the  most 
careful  labor,  was  his  first  edition  of  the  Latin 
Bible.  To  make  it  as  perfect  as  possible,  he  com- 
pared the  text  with  manuscripts,  and  consulted 
the  ablest  divines  ;  —  he  also  had  new  types  cast, 
so  that  its  appearance  should  equal  its  accuracy. 
The  work,  however,  served  as  an  occasion  of  re- 
viving against  him  the  jealousy  of  the  Sorbonnists, 
who  not  only  suspected  him  of  protestantism,  but 
regarded  with  dislike  the  favor  he  received  from 
the  reigning  monarch,  Francis  I.  The  king,  how- 
ever, sustained  him ;  and  he  soon  published  the 
first  edition  of  his  Thesaurus  Linguce  Latince,  a 
work  of  great  research,  and  which  he  continued 
to  improve  on  the  issue  of  every  succeeding  edi- 
tion. 

In  1539,  he  was  appointed  King's  printer  of 
Latin  and  Hebrew ;  and,  at  his  suggestion,  Francis 
caused  to  be  cast  a  beautiful  fount  of  types,  which, 
one  of  his  biographers  says,  are  still  preserved  in 
the  royal  printing  office  of  Paris.  After  the 
death  of  the  king,  feeling  that  he  had  no  security 
against  the  attacks  of  his  enemies,  he  left  Paris, 
and  retired  to  Geneva.    Here,  if  not  before,  he 


132 


ROBERT  STEPHENS. 


took  open  ground  in  favor  of  the  Reformation, 
and  continued  to  publish  works  of  great  value,  for 
which  he  received  public  marks  of  honor  from  the 
city.  He  died  at  Geneva,  in  the  year  1559,  at  the 
age  of  fifty-six.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  editor 
of  not  less  than  three  hundred  and  sixty  books. 
Among  them  were  the  Hebrew  Bible,  in  two 
forms,  —  the  Latin  Bible,  — the  Greek  New  Tes- 
tament, —  the  works  of  Cicero,  Terence,  Plautus, 
and  other  classic  writers.  His  original  works 
were  also  numerous,  the  greatest  of  which  was  his 
Latin  Thesaurus.  He  also  projected  a  Greek 
Thesaurus,  but  did  not  live  to  carry  the  prepara- 
tion of  it  to  a  very  great  extent.  His  intended 
commentary  on  the  Bible  was  in  like  manner 
never  fully  undertaken.  To  his  enemies  of  the 
Sorbonne,  he  replied  in  a  very  able  manner.  The 
mention  of  these  works,  which  are  but  a  part  of 
what  he  accomplished,  will  show  in  some  degree 
the  diligence  and  learning  of  this  remarkable 
man.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  early  printers  to 
have  a  mark  with  an  appropriate  device.  "  His 
mark  was  an  olive  with  branches,  and  the  motto, 
Noli  altum  sapere,  to  which  sometimes  were  added 
the  words  sed  time." 

The  most  honorable  testimonials  were  borne  by 
distinguished  men  to  his  learning  and  excellent 
character.  Beza  pronounced  a  high  eulogium 
upon  him.  De  Thou  ranks  him  higher  than 
Aldus  Manutius,  and,  with  a  feeling  which  would 
seem  uncommon  in  his  time,  affirms  that  Christen- 
dom was  more  indebted  to  him  than  to  its  greatest 
conquerors ;  and  that  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  was 
more  honored  by  his  life,  than  by  the  renowned 
exploits  of  that  prince  himself. 


HENRY  STEPHENS. 


Henry  Stephens  was  the  eldest  son  of  Rob- 
ert, the  subject  of  the  preceding  brief  sketch.  He 
was  born  at  Paris,  in  1528,  and  early  gave  prom- 
ise of  the  remarkable  eminence  to  which  he  at- 
tained in  learning.  It  is  said,  that,  having  heard 
his  tutor  instructing  other  pupils  in  the  Medea  of 
Euripides,  he  was  so  much  delighted  with  the 
sweetness  of  the  language,  that  he  was  inspired 
with  an  unconquerable  desire  to  learn  it.  To 
this  his  father  assented,  although  it  was  contrary 
to  the  usual  course  to  study  Greek  before  studying 
Latin.  His  progress  corresponded  with  his  en- 
thusiasm. He  was  soon  able  to  read  Euripides, 
and  learned  many  of  the  plays  by  heart.  Latin, 
which  was  to  a  considerable  extent  the  spoken 
language  of  his  father's  family,  he  was  early  fa- 
miliar with  ;  and  he  also  mastered  arithmetic  and 
geometry.  At  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  set  out  on 
his  travels  for  the  sake  of  examining  foreign  libra- 
ries, and  becoming  acquainted  with  literary  men. 
He  spent  two  or  three  years  in  Italy,  and,  either 
before  his  return  to  Paris,  or  soon  after,  visited 
the  Netherlands  and  England.  In  these  travels 
he  added  to  his  store  of  learning,  and  obtained 
manuscripts  of  parts  of  the  ancient  classics  which 
were  not  before  known  to  be  in  existence. 

When  his  father  removed  to  Geneva,  he  accom- 
panied him,  but,  in  the  year  1554,  returned  again 
to  Paris,  and  established  himself  there  as  a  print- 
er.   He  soon  published  an  edition  of  Anacreon ; 

i, 


194 


HENRY  STEPHENS. 


and  in  the  same  year  we  hear  of  him  at  Rome 
and  Naples,  where  he  went  in  the  service  of  the 
French  government.  Here  he  narrowly  escaped 
losing  his  life,  and,  it  is  said,  only  saved  himself 
from  being  arrested  as  a  spy,  by  his  facility  in 
speaking  the  Italian  language.  Danger,  however, 
did  not  deter  him  from  pursuing  his  literary  la- 
bors ;  and  he  took  the  opportunity  to  visit  Venice, 
in  order  to  examine  some  valuable  manuscripts 
of  Xenophon  and  Diogenes  Laertius.  After  his 
return,  about  the  year  1557,  he  began  that  series 
of  classical  publications  which  his  press  continued 
to  throw  out  for  many  years,  enriched  with  notes 
and  prefaces,  prepared  with  great  labor  by  him- 
self, and  "  which  are  read  by  scholars  to  this  day 
with  profit  and  admiration."  "The  press  of 
Stephens,"  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Hallam,  "  might  be 
called  the  central  point  of  illumination  to  Europe. 
In  the  year  1557  alone,  he  published  more  edi- 
tions of  ancient  authors  than  would  have  been 
sufficient  to  make  the  reputation  of  another  au- 
thor." In  publishing  these  works,  he  was  sub- 
jected to  expenses  which  he  could  not  have  borne 
but  for  the  assistance  of  Ulric  Fugger,  a  rich  and 
liberal  German  nobleman.  From  gratitude  to 
this  benefactor,  he  called  himself  his  printer: 
"  Jllustn's  viri  Huldrici  Fuggeri  typographus." 

In  1559,  by  the  death  of  his  father,  and  the 
consequent  responsibilities  thrown  upon  him  as 
executor  of  the  estate  and  guardian  of  his  broth- 
ers, he  was  afflicted  with  melancholy,  from  which 
it  was  difficult  to  rouse  him.  He  was  also  sub- 
jected to  another  danger,  that  of  being  driven 
from  Paris  on  account  of  his  Protestant  opinions, 
of  which  he  had  made  a  public  profession.  Be- 


HENRY  STEPHENS. 


195 


sides  this,  he  had  published  a  French  translation 
of  Herodotus,  to  which  he  had  added  a  collection 
of  witty  anecdotes  and  satirical  remarks  directed 
against  the  monks  ;  and  he  feared  that  the  discov- 
ery would  lead  to  violence  on  their  part,  in  return. 

He  continued,  however,  his  literary  labors,  and, 
in  1572,  published  his  Greek  Thesaurus.  He 
had  been  employed  upon  it  for  twelve  years  ;  and 
when  we  consider  the  difficulties  which  he  had  to 
surmount,  the  scanty  materials  which  the  more 
ancient  dictionaries  afforded,  and  the  size  of  the 
work,  we  may  well  pronounce  it  to  be  among  the 
greatest  literary  undertakings  ever  completed  by 
one  man.  The  cost  of  this  enterprise  entirely 
exhausted  his  pecuniary  resources.  He  expected 
a  recompense  in  the  sale  of  the  work  upon  which 
the  learned  bestowed  the  highest  commendations  ; 
but  in  this  he  was  sadly  disappointed,  through 
the  treachery  of  one  of  his  workmen.  John  Scap- 
ula was  employed  by  Stephens  as  a  corrector  of 
the  press,  at  the  time  when  he  was  publishing  the 
Thesaurus.  The  opportunity  of  using  the  mate- 
rials of  his  master  for  his  own  advantage  was  too 
tempting  to  be  resisted  by  Scapula ;  and  he  accord- 
ingly employed  himself  in  preparing  from  the 
great  work  of  Stephens,  a  smaller  Greek  lexicon, 
which,  from  its  more  convenient  size  and  price, 
took  the  place  of  the  more  costly  original.  By 
this  treachery,  Stephens  was  reduced  to  poverty. 

After  suffering  heavy  pecuniary  losses,  he  left 
France,  and  for  a  time  resided  in  Germany,  where 
he  labored  still  as  an  author.  The  reigning  mon- 
arch in  France,  Henry  III.,  became  so  much 
interested  in  some  of  his  writings,  as  to  give  him 
a  small  pension,  and  to  invite  him  to  reside  at  the 


196  HENRY  STEPHENS. 

court.  It  is  also  said  that  he  granted  him  3,000 
livres  for  a  work  on  the  excellence  of  the  French 
language.  Prosperity  seems,  however,  to  have 
deserted  him.  Promises  of  assistance  from  the 
court  were  forgotten  or  disregarded  in  the  dis- 
tracted state  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  king  him- 
self died  soon  afterwards.  Another  calamity 
befell  him  in  the  loss  of  his  wife.  Thus  afflicted, 
and  disappointed  in  the  hope  of  retrieving  his  for- 
tunes, he  seems  to  have  spent  the  latter  part  of 
his  life  in  wandering  from  city  to  city,  perhaps 
with  the  forlorn  hope  of  some  unlooked-for  suc- 
cess. He  resided  a  while  in  Orleans,  in  Frank- 
fort, in  Geneva,  and  in  Lyons.  He  is  even  said 
to  have  travelled  as  far  as  Hungary.  During  his 
last  journey  to  Lyons,  he  was  seized  with  sick- 
ness, and  died  in  the  hospital  of  that  city,  in  the 
month  of  March,  1598,  aged  seventy  years. 

The  world  has  not  always  been  liberal  nor 
grateful,  nor  even  kind,  to  her  wise  men.  She 
has  sometimes  suffered  them  to  starve,  sometimes 
commended  the  poisoned  chalice  to  their  lips. 
But  let  no  one,  therefore,  neglect  the  pursuit  of 
learning  and  wisdom ;  for  it  is  better  to  suffer  with 
them  than  to  prosper  without  them.  And,  after 
all,  they,  more  often  than  otherwise,  carry  with 
them  an  abundant  temporal  reward.  Notwith- 
standing the  sad  termination  of  this  great  scholar's 
life,  no  misfortune  could  take  from  him  the  intel- 
lectual riches  he  had  so  diligently  amassed. 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  extent  of  the 
labors  of  Henry  Stephens,  by  a  simple  mention 
of  the  principal  classic  authors  whose  works  he 
ably  edited,  enriching  them  with  learned  prefaces, 
and  illustrating  them  with  notes  of  great  value. 


HENRY  STEPHENS. 


197 


Among  them  are  Homer,  Pindar,  iEschylus, 
Xenophon,  Thucydides,  Herodotus,  Sophocles, 
Plato,  Plutarch,  Callimaclius,  Horace,  Virgil,  and 
Pliny  the  younger,  not  to  mention  others.  Be- 
sides this,  he  published  Latin  translations  of 
Anacreon,  Theocritus,  Bion  and  Moschus,  Pin- 
dar, iEschylus  and  Sophocles,  &c,  &c,  all  of 
which  have  been  pronounced  excellent.* 

He  was  also  quite  a  voluminous  original  author. 
The  bare  titles  of  his  works  would  cover  several 
pages  of  this  volume.  He  wrote  poems,  both 
grave  and  gay,  and  a  Concordance  to  the  New 
Testament ;  but,  for  the  most  part,  devoted  himself 
to  criticisms,  more  or  less  direct,  upon  the  subjects 
of  his  classical  studies.  His  great  work,  the  Greek 
Thesaurus,  an  amazing  monument  of  labor  and 
learning,  has  not  yet  been  superseded.  A  beau- 
tiful edition  was  published,  not  long  since,  by  the 
Messrs.  Valpy,  and  a  still  more  beautiful  edition 
is  at  the  present  time  in  the  process  of  publication 
at  Paris.  He  left  three  children,  a  son  and  two 
daughters,  one  of  whom  was  married  to  the 
learned  Isaac  Casaubon.  His  end  was  a  sad  one ; 
but  his  life  was  useful,  and  honorable,  and  vir- 
tuous, and  his  name  will  always  be  reverently 
cherished  by  the  scholars  of  all  lands. 


*  "  He  was  so  diligent  and  accurate  in  his  translations, 
of  such  skill  in  giving  the  character  of  his  authoi*,  of  so 
great  perspicuity  and  elegance,  as  to  be  called  '  The  Trans- 
lator par  excellence?  "    See  Hallam's  Hist,  o  f  Lit. 

VOL.11.  17* 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


The  subject  of  the  following  sketch,  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  distinguished  of  American 
painters,  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was 
born  near  Springfield,  Chester  County,  on  the 
10th  of  October,  1738.  His  family  were  Qua- 
kers, and  emigrated  to  America  in  1699:  his 
father,  however,  being  left  at  school  in  England, 
did  not  join  his  relatives  until  1714.  The  native 
tendencies  of  West  were  early  manifested.  It  is 
said  that,  when  he  was  but  six  years  old,  his 
mother  left  him  for  a  few  moments  to  keep  the 
flies  from  an  infant  sleeping  in  the  cradle.  While 
he  was  thus  employed,  the  beauty  of  the  little 
creature,  smiling  in  its  sleep,  attracted  his  atten- 
tion, and  he  immediately  endeavored  to  delineate 
its  portrait  with  a  pen  and  ink.  His  mother  soon 
returned,  and  was  surprised  and  delighted  at  the 
attempt,  in  which  she  thought  she  detected  a  re- 
semblance to  the  sleeping  infant. 

Not  long  after  this,  he  was  sent  to  school,  but 
was  permitted  to  amuse  himself,  during  his  hours 
of  leisure,  in  drawing  flowers  and  animals  with  a 
pen.  He  soon  desired  to  represent  the  color  as 
well  as  the  shape ;  but  here  he  was  at  a  loss,  for 
the  community  in  which  he  lived,  made  use  of  no 
paints  but  the  most  simple  and  grave.  His 
American  biographer  says,  that  "  the  colors  he 
used  were  charcoal  and  chalk,  mixed  with  the 
juice  of  berries ;  but  with  these  colors,  laid  on 
with  the  hair  of  a  cat,  drawn  through  a  goose- 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


199 


quill,  when  about  nine  years  of  age,  he  drew  on 
a  sheet  of  paper  the  portraits  of  a  neighboring 
family,  in  which  the  delineation  of  each  individual 
was  sufficiently  accurate  to  be  immediately  recog- 
nized by  his  father,  when  the  picture  was  first 
shown  to  him.  When  about  twelve  years  old,  he 
drew  a  portrait  of  himself,  with  his  hair  hanging 
loosely  about  his  shoulders." 

His  stock  of  colors  was  soon  considerably  en- 
larged by  a  party  of  Indians,  who  visited  Spring- 
field in  the  summer  ;  and,  becoming  interested  by 
the  sketches  which  the  boy  showed  them,  taught 
him  to  prepare  the  red  and  yellow  paints  which 
they  were  accustomed  to  use.  A  piece  of  indigo 
which  his  mother  gave  him,  furnished  him  with 
blue  ;  and  with  these  three  simple  primary  colors, 
the  young  artist  felt  himself  rich. 

One  of  the  earliest  patrons  of  the  young  painter 
was  the  father  of  General  Wayne,  who  lived  at 
Springfield.  Happening  to  notice  one  day  several 
heads,  drawn  upon  boards  with  ink,  chalk,  and 
charcoal,  he  was  so  much  pleased  with  them,  as 
to  ask  the  privilege  of  taking  them  home.  Next 
day  he  called  again,  and  presented  young  West 
with  six  dollars.  This  circumstance  had  consid- 
erable effect  in  inducing  him  subsequently  to  make 
painting  his  profession. 

Another  circumstance,  which  occurred  about 
this  period,  afforded  him  inexpressible  delight.  A 
merchant  of  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Pennington,  being 
on  a  visit  to  the  family,  was  so  much  pleased  with 
the  efforts  of  Benjamin,  that  he  promised  him  a 
box  of  colors  and  brushes.  On  his  return  to  the 
city,  he  not  only  fulfilled  his  promise,  but  added 
to  the  stock,  several  pieces  of  canvass  prepared 


200 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


for  painting,  and  "  six  engravings  by  Grevling." 
Nothing  could  exceed  his  delight  at  this  unex- 
pected treasure.  He  carried  the  box  to  a  room 
in  the  garret,  and  immediately  began  to  imitate 
the  engravings  in  colors ;  and  even  ventured  to 
form  a  new  composition  by  using  the  figures  from 
the  different  prints.  "  The  result  of  this  boyish 
effort  to  combine  figures  from  engravings,  and  in- 
vent a  system  of  coloring,  was  exhibited  sixty- 
seven  years  afterwards,  in  the  same  room  with 
the  "  Christ  Rejected." 

It  was  not  long  before  it  began  to  be  known, 
that  a  lad  lived  in  Springfield,  who  gave  great 
promise  of  excellence  as  a  painter ;  and  before 
many  years  he  received  applications  to  paint  por- 
traits. He  was  indulged  too  with  a  visit  to  Phil- 
adelphia, where  he  was  greatly  excited  by  seeing 
several  pictures  of  merit.  Books  were  given  or 
lent  him,  from  which  he  received  some  general 
idea  of  the  principles  of  the  art.  His  first  histor- 
ical composition  was  the  death  of  Socrates.  The 
subject  was  proposed  to  him  by  a  person  of  the 
name  of  William  Henry,  of  Lancaster,  a  gun- 
smith, of  a  literary  turn  of  mind,  who  encouraged 
him  to  undertake  something  of  more  consequence 
than  portraits.  Young  West  was  unacquainted 
with  the  history  of  Socrates  ;  but  Henry  lent  him 
a  translation  of  Plutarch,  which  in  a  measure  sup- 
plied the  deficiency,  and  after  a  time  the  picture 
was  finished,  and  attracted  much  attention. 

It  led  also  to  an  acquaintance  which  proved  of 
great  advantage  to  the  future  painter.  Dr. 
Smith,  Provost  of  the  College  at  Philadelphia, 
being  called  to  Lancaster  to  arrange  the  studies 
of  the  grammar  school,  saw  the  picture,  and,  after 


BKNJAM1N  WEST. 


201 


conversing  with  the  young  artist,  offered  to  assist 
him  in  gaining  that  education  of  which  he  now 
began  to  feel  the  need.  The  result  of  this  offer 
was,  that  Benjamin  went  to  Philadelphia,  and 
resided  with  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Clarkson. 

In  the  capital  of  Pennsylvania,  he  labored  dil- 
igently at  the  profession  which  he  had  now  chosen, 
and  under  very  advantageous  circumstances.  He 
had  access  to  a  few  fine  paintings,  and  especially 
to  Gov.  Hamilton's  collection,  in  which  was  a  St. 
Ignatius,  by  Murillo.  It  had  been  captured  in  a 
Spanish  vessel,  and  West  copied  it,  without  know- 
ing its  author  or  fully  appreciating  its  value.  An 
anecdote  which  is  given  of  him  at  this  period  of 
his  life,  exhibits  his  early  habit  of  observation. 
While  in  Mr.  Clarksons  family,  he  was  taken  ill ; 
and,  being  in  a  weak  state,  no  light  was  admitted 
into  the  room,  except  what  found  its  way  through 
the  cracks  in  the  window-shutters.  When  his  fe- 
ver had  subsided,  as  he  was  lying  in  bed,  he  was 
surprised  to  see  "  the  form  of  a  white  cow  enter  at 
one  side  of  the  roof,  and,  walking  over  the  bed, 
gradually  vanish  at  the  other.  The  phenomenon 
surprised  him  exceedingly,  and  he  feared  that  his 
mind  was  impaired  by  his  disease,  which  his  sis- 
ter also  suspected,  when,  on  entering  to  inquire 
how  he  felt  himself,  he  related  to  her  what  he 
had  seen.  She  soon  left  the  room,  and  informed 
her  husband,  who  accompanied  her  back  to  the 
apartment ;  and  as  they  were  both  standing  near 
the  bed,  West  repeated  the  story,  exclaiming  that 
he  saw,  at  the  very  moment  in  which  he  was 
speaking,  several  little  pigs  running  along  the 
roof.  This  confirmed  them  in  the  apprehension 
of  his  delirium,  and  they  sent  for  a  physician ; 


202  BENJAMIN  WEST. 

but  his  pulse  was  regular,  the  skin  moist  and  cool, 
the  thirst  abated,  and,  indeed,  every  tiling  about 
the  patient  indicated  convalescence.  Still  the 
painter  persisted  in  his  story,  and  assured  them 
that  he  then  saw  the  figure  of  several  of  their  mu- 
tual friends  passing  on  the  roof,  over  the  bed  ; 
and  that  he  even  saw  fowls  picking,  and  the  very 
stones  of  the  street.  All  this  seemed  to  them 
very  extraordinary;  for  their  eyes,  not  accustomed 
to  the  gloom  of  the  chamber,  could  discern  noth- 
ing ;  and  the  physician  himself,  in  despite  of  the 
symptoms,  began  to  suspect  that  the  convalescent 
was  really  delirious.  Prescribing,  therefore,  a 
composing  mixture,  he  took  his  leave,  requesting 
Mrs.  Clarkson  and  her  husband  to  come  away 
and  not  disturb  the  patient.  After  they  had  re- 
tired, the  artist  got  up,  determined  to  find  out  the 
cause  of  the  strange  apparitions  which  had  so 
alarmed  them  all.  In  a  short  time,  he  discovered 
a  diagonal  knot-hole  in  one  of  the  window-shutters  ; 
and,  upon  placing  his  hand  over  it,  the  visionary 
paintings  on  the  roof  disappeared.  This  confirmed 
him  in  an  opinion  that  he  began  to  form,  that 
there  must  be  some  simple  natural  cause  for  what 
he  had  seen  ;  and,  having  thus  ascertained  the  way 
in  which  it  acted,  he  called  his  sister  and  her  hus- 
band into  the  room,  and  explained  it  to  them." 

On  his  return,  soon  after,  to  his  father's,  he  had 
a  box  made  with  one  of  the  sides  perforated,  and 
contrived,  without  ever  having  heard  of  the  in- 
strument, to  invent  the  Camera  obscura.  On 
mentioning  his  discovery  some  time  afterwards  to 
a  friend,  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  he  had  in- 
vented only  what  was  known  to  others  before. 
But  though  it  proved  to  be  "  a  new-found  old  in- 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


203 


vention,"  he  deserved  not  the  less  praise  for  inge- 
nuity. 

At  about  the  age  of  eighteen,  West  was  afflicted 
by  the  death  of  his  mother.  The  attractions  of 
home  being  much  diminished  by  this  painful 
event,  he  soon  established  himself  in  Philadelphia 
as  a  portrait  painter,  where  his  youth,  his  skill, 
and  his  moderate  prices,  soon  brought  him  a  good 
number  of  sitters.  Some  of  these  early  paintings 
are  still  preserved.  From  Philadelphia  he  went 
to  New  York,  where  he  doubled  his  prices,  and 
soon  found  himself  accumulating  enough  to  enable 
him  to  gratify  the  most  ardent  desire  of  his  soul, 
which  was  to  visit  Italy.  This  event  was  brought 
about  sooner  than  he  expected.  Mr.  Allen,  a 
wealthy  merchant  of  Philadelphia,  was  fitting  out 
a  ship  for  Leghorn,  in  which  his  sen  was  going 
out  for  the  benefit  of  travel.  West  heard  of  the 
vessel  while  in  New  York,  and  determined  to 
seize  the  opportunity  of  visiting  the  land  of  paint- 
ers. In  the  mean  time,  his  friend  and  former  in- 
structor, Dr.  Smith,  had  obtained  from  the  owners 
of  the  vessel,  permission  for  him  to  accompany  the 
young  merchant.  Every  thing  was  thus  far  fa- 
vorable, and  he  was  destined  to  receive  still  other 
proofs  of  the  kindness  of  his  friends  and  acquain- 
tances. Of  all  painters,  indeed,  he  was  perhaps, 
throughout  life,  the  most  fortunate  in  the  favor 
with  which  he  was  almost  universally  regarded, 
and  in  the  unsought  and  unexpected  advantages 
which  the  kindness  of  others  bestowed  upon  him. 
He  owed  this  in  part  to  his  high  talents,  and  still 
more  to  his  quiet,  unobtrusive,  and  modest  man- 
ners, and  to  the  strict  integrity  by  which  he  was 
always  characterized.    His  acquaintances  became 


20-i  BENJAMIN  WEST. 

friends,  and  his  friends  exerted  themselves  for  his 
advantage,  because  they  saw  that  prosperity  did 
not  elate  him  unduly,  and  that  every  advantage 
was  wisely  used. 

West  was  engaged  on  the  portrait  of  Mr. 
Kelly,  a  merchant  of  New  York,  when  he  de- 
termined to  sail  from  Philadelphia.  He  men- 
tioned his  plan  to  Mr.  Kelly,  who  approved  his 
determination,  paid  him  ten  guineas  for  the  paint- 
ing, and  gave  him  a  letter  to  his  agents  in  Phil- 
adelphia. On  presenting  the  letter,  he  found  it 
contained  an  order  for  fifty  guineas,  "  a  present 
to  aid  in  his  equipment  for  Italy."  To  record 
such  acts  of  kindness,  is  one  of  the  most  agreea- 
ble things  in  the  biography  of  a  man  of  genius. 

In  1760,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  the  ar- 
tist left  his  country,  to  which  he  never  again 
returned.  His  voyage  was  prosperous,  and  he 
was  kindly  received  at  Leghorn  by  Messrs.  Jack- 
son and  Rutherford,  the  correspondents  of  Mr. 
Allen.  He  soon  started  for  Rome,  carrying  let- 
ters to  many  persons  of  distinction.  The  circum- 
stances under  which  he  came  were  very  favorable. 
He  was  introduced  to  the  most  valuable  society, 
and  was  an  object  of  considerable  curiosity  as  an 
American  and  a  Quaker,  who  had  come  to  study 
the  fine  arts.  On  being  introduced  to  Cardinal 
Albani,  who,  though  old  and  blind,  was  considered 
a  great  judge  of  art,  one  of  the  first  remarks 
made  by  the  prelate,  as  he  passed  his  hands  over 
the  face  of  the  young  artist,  in  order  to  judge  of 
his  countenance,  was  "  This  young  savage  has  very 
good  features,  but  what  is  his  complexion  ?  Is 
he  black  or  white?"  The  English  gentleman 
who  introduced  him  replied,  that  he  was  "  very 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


205 


fair."  "  What !  "  said  the  cardinal,  "  as  fair  as  I 
am?"  As  the  complexion  of  his  eminence  was  a 
deep  olive,  this  question  produced  great  merri- 
ment, and  the  expression  "  as  fair  as  the  Cardi- 
nal," became  for  a  time  a  proverb.  "  It  was  a 
matter  of  astonishment,"  says  one  of  West's  biog- 
raphers, "  when  it  was  found  that  the  young  man 
was  neither  black  nor  a  savage,  but  fair,  intelli- 
gent, and  already  a  painter.  West  became  em- 
phatically the  lion  of  the  day  in  Rome."* 

In  order  to  exhibit  his  talent,  West  painted  the 
portrait  of  a  gentleman  to  whom  he  was  indebted 
for  many  favors, — Mr.  Robinson,  afterwards  Lord 
Grantham.  It  was  received  with  great  approba- 
tion by  the  judges  of  art,  and  pronounced  superior 
in  some  respects  to  the  productions  of  Raphael 
Mengs,  who  was  at  this  time  the  first  painter  in 
Rome.  Mengs  himself  very  cordially  commended 
the  young  American,  and  gave  him  some  excel- 
lent advice.  "  You  have  already,"  said  he,  "  the 
mechanical  part  of  your  art.  What  I  therefore 
recommend  to  you  is  to  examine  every  thing 
worthy  of  attention  here,  making  drawings  of  some 
half  dozen  of  the  best  statues ;  then  go  to  Flor- 
ence, and  study  in  the  galleries  ;  then  proceed  to 
Bologna,  and  study  the  works  of  the  Caracci :  af- 
terwards visit  Parma,  and  examine  attentively  the 
pictures  of  Corregio  ;  and  then  go  to  Venice,  and 


*  The  mistake  as  to  the  complexion  of  Americans,  has 
been  made  elsewhere  than  in  Italy.  An  acquaintance  of 
ours,  who  was  educated  in  part  at  Versailles,  France,  was 
frequently  an  object  of  curiosity  to  visiters,  who  more  than 
once,  on  seeing  him  for  the  first  time,  remarked,  with  a 
strong  exclamation  of  surprise,  II  rtest  fas  noir, — "  He  is 
not  black." 


206 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


view  the  productions  of  Tintoretto,  Titian,  and 
Paul  Veronese.  When  you  have  made  this  tour, 
return  to  Rome,  paint  an  historical  picture,  exhibit 
it  publicly,  and  then  the  opinion  which  will  be 
expressed  of  your  talents  will  determine  the  line 
of  art  which  you  ought  to  follow." 

This  judicious  advice,  West  was  prevented 
from  following  immediately,  by  illness,  brought  on 
perhaps  by  the  continued  excitement  to  which  he 
was  subjected.  He  returned  to  Leghorn,  for 
greater  repose  ;  nor  was  he,  for  nearly  a  year,  able 
fully  to  resume  his  studies  and  labors  as  an  artist. 
During  this  time,  the  reputation  he  had  acquired 
at  Rome  became  known  in  America,  and  his  gen- 
erous friends,  Mr.  Allen  and  Gov.  Hamilton,  de- 
termined that  the  career  of  so  promising  an  artist 
should  not  be  impeded  by  want  of  means.  They 
sent  orders  to  their  bankers  at  Leghorn,  to  give 
him  unlimited  credit.  This  great  and  unlooked- 
-for liberality  was  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
Mr.  West',  whose  limited  funds  were  nearly  ex- 
hausted. Mr.  Gait  very  properly  remarks,  that 
"  a  more  splendid  instance  of  liberality  is  not  to 
be  found  even  in  the  records  of  Florence.  The 
munificence  of  the  Medici  was  excelled  by  that 
of  the  magistracy  of  Philadelphia." 

He  now  commenced  his  tour  under  favorable 
auspices,  and  visited,  with  great  advantage,  galle- 
ries of  the  different  schools  in  the  most  important 
cities  of  Italy.  He  was  everywhere  received 
with  favor,  and  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
Academies  in  Parma,  Bologna,  and  Florence. 
A  similar  honor  was  afterwards  conferred  upon 
him  in  Rome.  While  in  Italy,  he  painted  his 
"  Cimon  and  Iphigenia,"  and  "  Angelica  and  Me- 


BENJAMIN  WEST.  207 

dora,"  which  established  his  reputation  as  an  his- 
torical painter.  He  also  made  a  very  excellent 
copy  of  the  St.  Jerome  of  Corregio.  This  picture 
was.  and  we  presume  is  now,  in  possession  of  the 
family  of  Mr.  Allen,  and  in  America. 

Having  now  accomplished  his  purposes  in  vis- 
iting Italy,  he  began  to  think  of  returning  home, 
but,  in  accordance  with  the  advice  of  his  father, 
determined  first  to  visit  England,  the  mother 
country,  to  which  the  colonists  still  looked  with 
great  affection.  His  arrangements  were  soon 
made,  and  he  journeyed  through  France,  visiting 
whatever  was  worthy  to  be  seen,  and  on  the  20th 
of  June,  1763,  arrived  in  London.  As  it  was  not 
then  his  intention  to  remain  in  England,  he  im- 
mediately visited  the  collection  of  paintings  in 
London,  and  at  Hampton  Court,  Windsor,  and 
Blenheim ;  and  also  spent  some  time  with  the 
friends  of  his  father,  who  resided  in  Reading. 
In  the  mean  time  he  became  acquainted  with  the 
most  noted  of  the  British  painters,  among  whom 
was  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and  with  Mr.  Burke, 
whose  knowledge  of  art  was  as  accurate  and  pro- 
found as  his  knowledge  of  the  science  of  govern- 
ment. 

Encouraged  by  an  examination  of  the  works  of 
the  popular  painters,  as  well  as  by  the  voice  of 
his  friends,  he  determined  to  try  his  success  as  a 
painter.  In  the  department  of  historical  painting, 
he  was  almost  without  a  rival.  There  was  then 
no  distinguished  historical  painter  in  England. 
He  exhibited  some  of  his  paintings,  and  received 
great  praise  and  encouragement.  As  an  illustra- 
tion, however,  of  the  state  of  English  taste  at  this 
time,  and  of  the  timidity  of  the  lovers  of  art  in 


208 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


purchasing  the  productions  of  a  modern  artist  in 
this  the  highest  department  of  skill,  it  is  stated, 
that,  while  one  of  West's  earliest  paintings,  founded 
on  the  story  of  Pylades  and  Orestes,  attracted  so 
much  attention  that  his  servant  was  employed 
from  morning  till  night  in  opening  the  door  to  vis- 
iters, and  received  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
by  showing  it,  the  master  was  obliged  to  content 
himself  with  empty  praise  ;  "  no  mortal  ever  hav- 
ing asked  the  price  of  the  work,  or  having  offered 
to  give  him  a  commission  to  paint  any  other  sub- 
ject." 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  his  merit  was 
seen,  and  his  skill  employed.  He  painted  for  Dr. 
Newton  the  "  Parting  of  Hector  and  Andro- 
mache ;"  and  the  "  Return  of  the  Prodigal  Son," 
for  the  bishop  of  Worcester ;  and  soon  received 
the  liberal  offer  of  seven  hundred  pounds  a  year 
(nearly  S3,500)  from  Lord  Rockingham,  if  he 
would  embellish  with  historical  paintings  his 
mansion  in  Yorkshire.  He  preferred,  however, 
to  take  his  chance  with  the  public. 

Although  he  now  felt  himself  established  in  Eng- 
land, on  account  of  his  recent  success,  he  still 
thought  of  returning  for  a  time  to  America,  in  order 
to  marry  a  lady  to  whom  he  had  long  been  attached. 
Some  of  his  friends,  however,  more  prudent  than 
himself,  feared  that  his  absence  might  avert  some 
portion  of  the  public  favor,  and  suggested  another 
expedient  to  which  the  cool  and  considerate  artist 
yielded.  The  result  was,  that  Miss  Shewell  ac- 
companied West's  father  to  England,  and  was  mar- 
ried to  the  painter,  on  the  2d  of  September,  1765. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Drummond,  arch- 
bishop of  York,  West  was  introduced  to  the  king, 


BENJAMIN  VEST. 


209 


George  III.,  by  whom  lie  was  received  with  very 
great  kindness.  The  picture  of  "  Agrippina," 
painted  for  the  archbishop,  was  exhibited  to  his 
majesty  and  to  the  queen  by  the  artist  in  person ; 
and,  before  he  retired  from  the  room,  an  order  was 
given  for  painting  the  ;'  Departure  of  Regulus  from 
Borne,"  the  subject  being  suggested  by  the  king 
himself.  This  was  the  beginning  of  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  monarch,  we  may  almost  say  of 
friendship,  which  continued  for  forty  years. 

Trifling  circumstances  sometimes  do  much  to 
extend  a  person's  reputation.  An  amusing  writer 
says,  "  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  is  the  best 
known  man  in  London,  partly  because  of  his  vic- 
tory at  Waterloo,  and  partly  because  of  his  very 
remarkable  nose."  We  will  give  an  anecdote  of 
West,  as  we  find  it  in  his  biography  by  Allan  Cun- 
ningham :  —  "  West  was  a  skilful  skater,  and  in 
America  had  formed  an  acquaintance  on  the  ice 
with  Colonel,  afterwards  too  well  known  in  the 
Colonial  war,  as  General  Howe.  This  friendship 
had  dissolved  with  the  thaw,  and  was  forgotten, 
till  one  day  the  painter,  having  tied  on  his  skates 
at  the  Serpentine,  was  astonishing  the  timid  prac- 
titioners of  London  by  the  rapidity  of  his  motions, 
and  the  graceful  figure  which  he  cut.  Some  one 
cried  out,  '  West !  West ! '  it  was  Colonel  Howe. 
'I  am  glad  to  see  you,'  said  he,  'and  not  the 
less  so  that  you  come  in  good  time  to  vindicate 
my  praise  of  American  skating.'  He  called  to 
him  Lord  Spencer  Hamilton,  and  some  of  the 
Cavendishes,  to  whom  he  introduced  West  as 
one  of  the  Philadelphia  prodigies,  and  requested 
him  to  show  them  what  was  called  '  the  salute.' 
He  performed  the  feat  so  much  to  their  satisfac- 


210 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


tion,  that  they  went  away  spreading  the  praise  of 
the  American  skater  over  London.  Nor  was  the 
considerate  Quaker  insensible  to  the  value  of  such 
commendations :  he  continued  to  frequent  the 
Serpentine,  and  to  gratify  large  crowds  by  cutting 
the  Philadelphia  Salute.  Many,  to  their  praise 
of  his  skating,  added  panegyrics  on  his  professional 
skill ;  and  not  a  few,  to  vindicate  their  applause, 
followed  him  to  the  easel,  and  sat  for  their  por- 
traits." 

British  artists,  at  the  time  when  West  arrived 
in  England,  were  associated  under  the  name  of 
"  The  Society  of  Incorporated  Artists,"  into  which 
the  American  was  admitted.  While  he  was 
painting  his  Regulus  for  the  king,  dissentions 
arose  in  the  Society,  which  resulted  in  the  se- 
cession of  Reynolds  and  West  among  others,  and 
the  formation  of  the  Royal  Academy,  of  which 
Reynolds  was  elected  President.  "  The  Death  of 
Wolfe,"  which  West  soon  painted,  has  ever  been 
considered  as  one  of  his  best  productions ;  it  is 
also  worthy  of  remark,  as  having  led  to  a  great 
change  in  the  practice  of  English  artists.  Until 
then,  it  had  been  common  for  them  to  represent 
the  moderns  with  the  costume  of  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans. West  determined  to  throw  aside  this  per- 
nicious habit,  and  to  represent  the  English  and 
French  generals  and  soldiers  in  the  actual  milita- 
ry dress  of  the  day.  He  thought  he  should  gain 
far  more  in  the  life  and  truth  of  expression,  than 
he  should  lose  in  picturesqueness  and  grace.  He 
was  encountered,  however,  by  the  strong  preju- 
dices of  the  public,  and  the  decided  opinion  of  the 
painters.  The  archbishop  of  York  and  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  took  particular  pains  to  dissuade  the 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


211 


artist  from  the  hazardous  experiment.  The  result 
showed  the  good  judgment  of  West.  He  has  rep- 
resented the  real  event  as  it  presented  itself  to  his 
own  mind,  idealizing  it  only  so  far  as  is  necessa- 
rily demanded  by  the  laws  of  art.  Reynolds  vis- 
ited the  painting  again  when  it  was  finished;  and 
after  sitting  before  it  for  half  an  hour,  and  exam- 
ining it  with  minute  attention,  he  rose,  and  said  to 
Dr.  Drummond,  who  had  again  accompanied  him, 
"  West  has  conquered  ;  he  has  treated  his  subject 
as  it  ought  to  be  treated ;  I  retract  my  objections. 
I  foresee  that  this  picture  will  not  only  become 
one  of  the  most  popular,  but  will  occasion  a  rev- 
olution in  art." 

Being  now  fully  in  favor  with  the  public,  and 
enjoying  the  royal  patronage  without  reserve,  the 
painter  formed  designs  commensurate  with  his 
honorable  position.  He  not  only  executed  various 
works  upon  classical  and  historical  subjects,  but 
suggested  a  series  of  pictures  to  illustrate  the  pro- 
gress of  revealed  religion.  "  No  subtle  divine," 
says  Mr.  Cunningham,  "  ever  labored  more  dili- 
gently on  controversial  texts  than  did  our  painter 
in  evolving  his  pictures  out  of  this  grand  and 
awful  subject.  He  divided  it  into  four  dispensa- 
tions,—  the  Antediluvian,  the  Patriarchal,  the 
Mosaical,  and  the  Prophetical.  They  contained 
in  all  thirty-six  subjects,  eighteen  of  which  be- 
longed to  the  Old  Testament,  the  rest  to  the  New. 
They  were  all  sketched,  and  twenty-eight  were 
executed,  for  which  West  received  in  all  twenty- 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  five  pounds.  A 
work  so  varied,  so  extensive,  and  so  noble  in  its 
nature,  was  never  before  undertaken  by  any 
painter." 

£r5 


212 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


When  the  war  broke  out  between  England  and 
the  American  colonies,  West  was  much  distressed 
by  it,  but  still  preserved  the  favor  of  George 
III.,  and  devoted  himself  assiduously  to  his  art. 
He  was  enabled  by  his  position  to  afford  aid  to 
Americans  in  England,  which  he  was  always  very 
ready  to  do,  and  perhaps  to  communicate  useful 
intelligence  to  the  king  respecting  the  resources 
of  his  native  land. 

On  the  death  of  Reynolds,  in  1792,  West  was 
elected  his  successor  as  President  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  which  position  he  retained,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  months,  until  his  death.  The 
king,  on  this  occasion,  wished  to  confer  upon  him 
the  distinction  of  knighthood  ;  an  honor  which  the 
painter  saw  fit  to  decline. 

While  the  health  of  George  III.  remained 
good,  West  was  never  at  a  loss  for  a  patron  ;  but 
when  the  king's  mind  became  disordered,  and 
England  was  governed  by  a  regency,  the  favor 
of  the  court  was  withdrawn,  the  order  for  paint- 
ings was  withheld,  and  the  doors  of  the  palace  shut 
upon  him.  During  this  period,  availing  himself 
of  the  general  peace  in  Europe,  in  1802,  he  vis- 
ited Paris,  where  were  then  collected  by  the 
rapacity  and  taste  of  the  First  Consul,  the  choicest 
gems  of  art,  taken  from  all  the  galleries  of  Eu- 
rope. He  was  received  with  great  honor  by 
artists  and  by  statesmen,  as  the  President  of  the 
British  Academy,  and  had  several  interviews  with 
Bonaparte.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  he  ever  looked  upon  his  visit  to 
France  with  pleasing  recollections. 

When  the  king  recovered  his  health,  West  was 
at  once  readmitted  to  favor,  and  an  order  was  im- 


BENJAMIN  "WEST. 


213 


mediately  given  for  him  to  proceed  with  his  paint- 
ings. His  salary  of  one  thousand  pounds  per 
annum  was  restored,  and  continued  to  be  regularly 
paid  until  the  final  superannuation  of  the  monarch, 
when  it  was  stopped  without  the  least  previous 
intimation. 

West  was  now  between  sixty  and  seventy  years 
of  age  :  he  had  received  large  sums  for  his  paint- 
ings, but  he  had  been  a  long  time  in  executing 
them,  and  his  necessary  expenses  for  a  house  and 
painting-room  and  gallery  were  great.  He  found 
himself,  in  his  old  age,  without  a  fortune,  and 
thrown  aside  by  the  court.  Without  being  at  all 
daunted,  however,  he  commenced  a  series  of  works, 
some  of  which  proved  to  be  among  his  very  best. 
The  first  that  he  exhibited  was  "  Christ  healing 
the  Sick,"  which  he  designed  for  the  hospital  in 
Philadelphia.  When  exhibited  in  London,  it  at- 
tracted crowds,  and  commanded  such  admiration 
that  the  British  Institution  offered  him  three 
thousand  guineas  for  it.  West  accepted  the  offer 
"  on  condition  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  make 
a  copy  with  alterations."  In  the  copy  which 
he  transmitted  to  Philadelphia,  he  not  only  made 
alterations,  but  added  an  additional  group.  It 
was  exhibited  by  the  trustees  of  the  hospital,  and 
the  receipts,  in  the  first  year  after  its  first  arrival, 
are  said  to  have  been  four  thousand  dollars. 
Among  the  other  great  works  painted  at  this 
period,  are  the  "  Christ  Rejected,"  and  "  Death 
on  the  Pale  Horse."  These  are  among  his  best 
known  works  in  this  country,  and  are  remarkable 
for  their  grandeur  and  power. 

In  1817,  when  he  was  seventy-nine  years  old, 
he  was  afflicted  by  the  loss  of  his  wife,  who  for 


214 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


more  than  fifty  years  had  been  his  constant  com- 
panion. He  himself  was  feeling  the  pressure  of 
old  age,  but  still  pursued  his  favorite  occupation. 
He  sat  among  his  pictures ;  his  hand  had  lost 
something  of  "  its  cunning,"  but  still  continued  to 
sketch  and  to  paint.  At  length,  on  the  11th  of 
March,  1820,  "  without  any  fixed  complaint,  his 
mental  faculties  unimpaired,  his  cheerfulness  un- 
eclipsed,  and  with  looks  serene  and  benevolent, 
he  expired,  in  the  82d  year  of  his  age.  He  was 
buried  beside  Reynolds,  Opie,  and  Barry,  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral.  The  pall  was  borne  by  noble- 
men, ambassadors,  and  academicians ;  his  two 
sons  and  grandson  were  chief  mourners,  and  sixty 
coaches  brought  up  the  splendid  procession." 

West  was  not  above  the  middle  height,  of  a 
very  fair  complexion,  with  a  serene  brow  and  a 
penetrating  eye.  He  was  patient,  methodical, 
and  extremely  diligent.  He  left  upwards  of  four 
hundred  paintings  and  sketches  in  oil,  many  of 
t  hem  of  a  large  size,  besides  more  than  two  hun- 
dred original  drawings  in  his  portfolio.  It  was 
ascertained  by  calculation,  that,  to  contain  all  his 
productions,  "  a  gallery  would  be  necessary  four 
hundred  feet  long,  fifty  broad,  and  forty  high." 
In  so  large  a  number  of  productions  there  must  be 
great  differences  as  to  merit.  If  his  genius  was  not 
of  the  highest  kind,  it  was  certainly  very  prolific, 
and  sometimes  seemed  to  surpass  itself.  Critics 
of  high  merit  have  pronounced  him,  "in  his  pecu- 
liar department,  the  most  distinguished  artist  of 
the  age  in  which  he  lived."  "  In  his  Death  on 
the  Pule  Horse,"  painted  when  he  was  nearly  80, 
says  Cunningham,  "  and  more  particularly  in  his 
sketch  of  that  picture,  he  has  more  than  ap- 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


215 


proached  the  masters  and  princes  of  the  calling. 
It  is  indeed  irresistibly  fearful  to  see  the  trium- 
phant march  of  the  terrific  phantom,  and  the  dis- 
solution of  all  that  earth  is  proud  of,  beneath  his 
tread.  War  and  peace,  sorrow  and  joy,  youth 
and  age,  all  who  love  and  all  who  hate,  seem 
planet-struck.  "The  Death  of  Wolfe,"  too,  is 
natural  and  noble ;  and  the  Indian  Chief,  like  the 
Oneida  Warrior  of  Campbell, 

"  A  stoic  of  the  woods,  a  man  without  a  tear," 

was  a  happy  thought.  "  The  Battle  of  La  Hogue," 
I  have  heard  praised  as  the  best  historic  picture 
of  the  British  school,  by  one  not  likely  to  be  mis- 
taken, and  who  would  not  say  what  he  did  not 
feel."  The  gallery  of  West's  pictures  was  sold 
after  his  death  for  upwards  of  twenty-five  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling. 

One  of  the  most  admirable  traits  of  this  great 
painter  was  his  pure  moral  character.  This  is 
exhibited  in  part  by  the  subjects  upon  which  he 
chose  to  exercise  his  pencil.  They  were  subjects 
of  high  moral  interest,  —  heroic  deeds,  —  events 
of  sacred  history,  —  the  triumphs  of  patriotism 
and  virtue.  In  this  choice  he  persisted,  too,  at  a 
time  when  the  general  taste  of  the  country  was 
directed  to  subjects  of  a  far  inferior  character. 

Not  the  least  pleasant  circumstance  to  be  men- 
tioned in  this  sketch  of  Benjamin  West,  is  the 
kind  relation  which  always  existed  between  him 
and  his  pupils,  some  of  whom  have  been  among 
the  most  distinguished  of  American  artists.  It 
was  natural  that  a  young  painter  who  went  from 
this  country  to  England  for  instruction,  or  to  seek 
his  fortune,  should  desire  the  benefit  of  the  vet- 


216 


BENJAMIN  WEST. 


eran's  advice  and  counsel.  These  were  never 
sought  in  vain.  When  Trumbull  was  arrested, 
during  the  war,  by  order  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, West  immediately  waited  upon  the  king, 
and  made  known  to  his  majesty  his  pupil's  char- 
acter and  purposes,  and  received  the  assurance 
that,  at  all  events,  the  personal  safety  of  the  pris- 
oner should  be  fully  attended  to.  When  Gilbert 
Stuart  was  in  London,  a  young  painter,  without 
resources,  West  not  only  afforded  him  direct  pe- 
cuniary aid,  but  employed  him  in  copying,  and 
otherwise  assisted  him  in  his  study  of  that  branch 
of  the  art  in  which  he  afterwards  excelled  his 
master.  A  few  weeks  after  Allston's  arrival  in 
England,  he  was  introduced  to  Mr.  West,  and 
thus  speaks  of  him  in  a  letter :  —  "  Mr.  West,  to 
whom  I  was  soon  introduced,  received  me  with 
the  greatest  kindness.  I  shall  never  forget  his 
benevolent  smile  when  he  took  me  by  the  hand  ; 
it  is  still  fresh  in  my  memory,  linked  with  the  last 
of  like  kind  which  accompanied  the  last  shake  of 
his  hand,  when  I  took  a  final  leave  of  him  in 
1818.  His  gallery  was  open  to  me  at  all  times, 
and  his  advice  always  ready,  and  kindly  given. 
He  was  a  man  overflowing  with  the  milk  of  hu- 
man kindness.  If  he  had  enemies,  I  doubt  if  he 
owed  them  to  any  other  cause  than  his  rare  vir- 
tue ;  which,  alas  for  human  nature !  is  too  often 
deemed  cause  sufficient." 

With  this  genial  testimony  from  one  of  the 
greatest  and  purest  of  our  artists,  himself  so  lately 
gone  to  his  reward,  we  close  our  sketch  of  the 
earliest  distinguished  American  painter,  who,  by 
assiduously  cultivating  the  genius  which  Heaven 
conferred,  did  much  to  extend  the  reputation  of 
his  country,  and  to  refine  and  bless  mankind. 


PETER  HORBERG. 


It  is  proper  to  state  that  the  following  sketch  has.  hecn 
mainly  derived  from  an  article  in  a  Swedish  publication, 
translated  by  the  Hon.  George  P.  Marsh,  of  Burlington, 
Vermont. 

In  the  life  of  Benjamin  West  we  have  seen  the 
power  of  genius,  directing  its  possessor,  under 
early  adverse  circumstances,  to  a  profession  to 
which  no  external  advantages  invited  him.  The 
life  of  the  Swedish  painter,  whose  name  stands 
at  the  head  of  this  article,  is  a  still  more  remark- 
able example  of  the  successful  cultivation  of  a 
favorite  art,  with  absolutely  no  facilities  except 
those  created  by  his  own  ingenuity.  He  was 
impelled,  not  by  patronage  or  the  wishes  of 
friends,  but  by  the  taste  and  force  of  mind  with 
which  nature  had  endowed  him.  An  ordinary 
adviser  would  have  assured  him,  that  he  was 
meant  for  a  humble  laborer  in  the  lowly  sphere 
of  rural  life  which  his  father  filled ;  would  have 
predicted  for  him  the  toil  and  penury  of  his  an- 
cestors ;  would  certainly,  whatever  dreams  of  fu- 
ture prosperity  he  indulged,  not  have  guessed, 
that  without  money,  without  the  access  to  the 
higher  scenes  of  a  city  life,  which  even  a  peasant 
may  sometimes  enjoy,  without  books,  without 
models,  without  instruction,  he  would  become  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  artists  of  his  country. 

Peter  Horberg-  was  born  in  the  parish  of 
Virestad,  in  Smaland,  Sweden,  January  31, 1746. 
His  parents  were  very  poor,  and  their  child  so 


19 


218 


PETER  HORBERG. 


weak  and  sickly  that  he  could  not  walk  till  his 
third  year.  His  father  taught  him  to  read  when 
he  was  five  years  old,  and  before  long,  by  means 
of  a  "  copy,"  borrowed  from  a  soldier,  gave  him 
some  knowledge  of  writing.  At  nine  years  of 
age  he  was  obliged  to  go  out  to  service,  and  re- 
ceived, as  compensation  for  a  summer's  labor,  a 
pair  of  mittens  and  a  violin,  valued  at  twenty- 
four  coppers.  The  violin  was  a  source  of  much 
amusement  during  the  winter  which  he  spent  at 
home.  He  strung  it  with  horsehair,  and  made 
such  progress  in  learning  to  play,  that  in  the 
spring  his  father  bought  him  another  instrument 
with  proper  strings.  For  two  summers  more, 
he  served  the  peasants  as  a  shepherd-boy,  watch- 
ing the  sheep  and  cattle  as  they  browsed  in  the 
wild  pastures  of  the  country,  according  to  the 
Swedish  custom.  His  taste  for  painting  began  to 
manifest  itself  even  as  early  as  this.  The  Swe- 
dish almanacs  and  catechisms  were  ornamented 
with  rude  engravings;  and,  as  his  means  would  not 
allow  him  to  own  one  of  these  books,  he  endeav- 
ored from  memory  to  draw  the  figures  on  birch 
bark.  He  began  also  to  ornament  his  father's 
cottage  with  carvings  in  soft  wood  and  fir  bark, 
among  which  was  an  imitation  of  the  altar-piece 
of  the  parish  church.  In  the  exercise  of  the 
same  vocation,  he  carved  various  figures  for  cane- 
heads,  at  the  request  of  the  neighboring  peasants. 
His  chief  occupation,  however,  was  in  drawing 
and  painting.  He  soon  became  dissatisfied  with 
representing  the  mere  figure,  and  endeavored  to 
add  color.  Having  never  heard  of  mixing  colors 
with  oil,  he  discovered  for  himself  a  method  of 
using  some  of  the  simpler  kinds,  such  as  ochre, 


PETER  HORBERG. 


219 


burnt  clay,  chalk,  and  charcoal,  in  a  dry  form,  as  is 
practised  by  crayon  painters.  He  used  planed 
boards  for  canvass ;  and,  if  fortune  threw  in  his 
way  a  bit  of  writing  paper,  "  he  drew  with  a  pen, 
using  the  juice  of  various  berries  to  color  and  shade 
his  drawings."  While  watching  his  flocks  in  the 
fields,  he  drew  figures  upon  the  smooth  rocks, 
using  fir  bark  for  red  chalk,  and  charcoal  for 
black  :  with  a  sharp  stick  also  he  marked  out 
figures  upon  the  white  funguses  of  the  pastures. 

Thus  he  advanced,  struggling  against  poverty, 
which  in  his  thirteenth  year  became  so  pressing, 
that  his  father  was  compelled  to  enrol  him  as  a  re- 
serve recruit  in  the  army,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
bounty  of  a  barrel  of  grain  to  save  the  family  from 
starving.  Upon  this,  mingled  with  chaff  and  cut 
straw,  they  contrived  to  live  through  the  winter. 
In  1759,  the  famine  became  so  severe,  that  Peter 
and  his  sister  were  sent  out  as  mendicants,  and 
actually  begged  their  bread  for  a  whole  year. 
Early  in  1760,  Peter  determined  to  apprentice 
himself  to  a  painter ;  and,  although  his  parents  did 
not  approve  the  resolution,  they  finally  gave  their 
consent.  He  accordingly,  at  the  age  of  fourteen, 
set  out  for  Wexio,  distant  about  thirty-five  miles ; 
this  being  the  nearest  place  at  which  a  master 
painter  could  be  found.  Every  thing  in  this  mar- 
ket town  filled  the  young  peasant  with  wonder. 
He  was  so  much  abashed  as  hardly  to  be  able  to 
answer  a  question.  Fortunately  for  him,  on  the 
way  from  Virestad  he  had  fallen  in  with  a  good- 
natured  peasant  who  conducted  him  to  the  painter, 
whose  name  (we  may  almost  despair  of  pronounc- 
ing it)  was  Johan  Christian  Zschotzscher.  This 
man  had  already  as   many  apprentices  as  he 


PLTKK  HOHBERQ. 


needed;  but,  on  allowing  Horberg  to  give  a 
specimen  of  his  talents  with  a  piece  of  chalk  upon 
a  black  board,  and  afterwards  in  drawing  with 
colors  on  the  backside  of  an  oak  board  used  to 
cut  tobacco  upon,  he  was  so  much  astonished, 
especially  on  learning  that  he  had  received  no 
instruction,  that  he  promised  to  receive  him  into 
his  service  if  he  could  get  discharged  from  his 
enrolment.  His  master  (that  was  to  be)  kept  the 
figure  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  which  the  boy 
had  painted  upon  the  board,  but  allowed  him  to 
take  a  copy  of  it  to  carry  home.  To  procure 
his  discharge,  it  was  necessary  for  his  father  to 
refund  the  bounty,  which  was  something  less  than 
one  dollar  and  three  quarters  of  our  money. 
The  poverty  of  the  family  was  such,  that  two 
years  elapsed  before  this  could  be  paid.  At  last, 
on  the  13th  of  April,  1762,  he  was  received  as  an 
apprentice  for  five  years. 

Having  obtained  leave  to  spend  the  Christmas 
holidays  with  his  father,  he  took  his  colors  with 
him,  and  painted  "  several  pieces  of  a  kind  of 
hangings,  called  botiad,  which  the  peasants  in 
many  parts  of  Sweden  employ  to  decorate  their 
apartments  at  Christmas.  These  are  of  linen, 
and  the  paintings  are  generally  scenes  from  Scrip- 
ture history,  with  explanatory  inscriptions.  For 
these  paintings  Peter  received  about  half  a  dollar, 
and  this  was  the  first  money  he  earned  as  a 
painter."  "  For  half  this  sum,"  says  he,  "  my 
mother  bought  me  tow-cloth  for  an  apron ;  and 
with  the  remainder,  I  purchased  a  lock  for  a  little 
chest,  which  my  father  had  made  for  me  the  pre- 
ceding fall.  I  had  no  means  of  conveying  my 
chest  to  Wexio  but  by  drawing  it  on  a  little  sled, 


PETER  HORBERG. 


221 


which  I  did.  The  contents  of  the  chest  were  my 
new  apron  and  a  pair  of  wooden  shoes,  which  my 
father  had  also  made  for  me." 

He  remained  at  Wexio  until  the  death  of  his 
master,  about  four  years  afterwards.  The  in- 
struction which  he  received  was  very  meagre ; 
his  principal  employment  was  "  laying  on  grounds 
and  grinding  colors."  His  only  time  for  drawing 
was  Sunday  afternoon  ;  and,  what  was  worse  than 
all,  his  master  was  incompetent  to  instruct  him. 
By  diligence  and  fidelity,  he,  however,  so  gained 
the  good  will  of  Zschotzscher,  that,  at  his  death, 
he  bequeathed  him  about  three  dollars,  on  condi- 
tion of  his  completing  the  unfinished  work  in  the 
shop. 

Having  received  the  necessary  testimonials 
from  the  magistrates  at  Wexio,  he  went  to  Got- 
tenburg  to  obtain  license  as  a  journeyman  painter. 
His  worldly  wealth  amounted  to  five  dollars,  and 
this  was  soon  absorbed  by  official  fees  and  his 
other  expenses  ;  so  that  when  he  started  on  his 
homeward  journey,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and 
ninety  miles,  he  was  one  dollar  and  a  half  in  debt, 
and  had  six  coppers  in  his  pocket !  After  trav- 
elling sixty  miles,  "  he  was  obliged  to  sell,  at  half 
cost,  his  'new  red  felt  hat,'  for  which  he  had 
paid  a  dollar  and  a  half  at  Wexio."  After  reach- 
ing home,  he  immediately  began  to  work,  although 
at  disadvantage,  until  he  earned  enough  to  pay 
his  debt  at  Gottenburg,  after  which  he  entered 
the  service  of  the  painter  Luthman,  at  Wexio. 

Within  a  year  from  this  time,  he  obtained  a  li- 
cense as  district  painter,  which  added  somewhat 
to  his  emoluments,  and,  what  was  of  more  conse- 
quence, emancipated  him  from  the  control  of 

v-oi,p  u.  -  ■  10* — •» 


222 


PETER  HORBERG. 


masters,  giving  him  liberty  to  follow  without 
restraint  the  free  promptings  of  his  imagination. 
Before  a  great  while,  ';  concluding,"  as  he  says, 
"  that  his  days  would  pass  more  happily  in  the 
condition  of  matrimony,"  he  married  a  young 
woman,  whose  circumstances  were  quite  as  hum- 
ble as  his  own,  and  whose  mind  seems  not  to  have 
been  able  to  sympathize  with  that  of  her  husband. 
So  entirely  poor  were  they,  that  "  they  had  not 
even  a  pot,  or  a  wood  axe,  but  managed  to  make 
shift  by  borrowing :  however,  after  they  had  lived 
together  a  year  and  a  half,  their  prosperity  in- 
creased to  that  degree,  that  they  were  able  to  pur- 
chase that  necessary  utensil,  an  iron  pot,  and  now 
thought  themselves  independent."  In  all  this 
poverty,  the  gentle  and  noble  character  of  the 
man  seems  never  to  have  given  way  under  accu- 
mulated trials.  He  "  endured  hardness  as  a  good 
soldier,"  maintained  ever  a  cheerful  spirit,  and, 
without  murmuring,  pursued  with  earnestness  the 
art  which  few  appreciated,  but  which  was  to  him 
so  dear. 

His  establishment,  as  district  painter,  did  not 
bring  him  an  income  sufficient  for  his  support. 
No  one  in  the  community  about  him  was  compe- 
tent to  judge  of  his  merits,  and  he  found  that  he 
must  depend  on  something  besides  his  pencil  for 
a  support.  "  He  not  only  made  his  own  furni- 
ture, but  made  tables,  boxes,  sledges,  and  even 
wooden  shoes,  for  other  peasants  in  the  neighbor- 
hood." After  a  wrhile  he  took  a  farm,  which  he 
subsequently  exchanged  for  one  larger,  and  again 
for  another  still  larger,  upon  which  he  employed 
a  laborer,  who  relieved  him  from  the  heavier 
tasks. 


PETER  HORBERG. 


223 


He,  however,  employed  his  pencil  as  oppor- 
tunity offered.  In  1783,  a  clergyman  from 
Kudby,  happening  to  enter  his  hut,  saw  some  of 
his  productions,  and  proposed  to  him  to  copy 
"  some  portraits  of  the  Gustavian  royal  family." 
Kudby  was  about  half-way  to  Stockholm,  a  city 
which  Horberg  was  extremely  anxious  to  visit; 
and,  with  the  hope  of  gratifying  his  wishes  in  this 
respect  also,  he  accepted  the  invitation.  His  wife 
and  relatives  endeavored  to  deter  him  from  this 
expedition  ;  but  his  mind  was  fixed,  and,  in  spite 
of  their  opposition,  he  started  with  about  a  dollar 
and  a  half  for  his  travelling  expenses,  and  two 
compositions  from  the  life  of  the  Saviour,  which 
he  intended  to  exhibit  at  Stockholm.  On  arriv- 
ing at  Kudby,  after  a  journey  of  four  or  five 
days,  he  found,  to  his  disappointment,  that  the 
clergyman  had  changed  his  mind  ;  and  he  re- 
ceived for  his  pains  the  liberal  reward  of  a  supply 
of  cold  provisions  !  His  small  stock  of  money 
was  half  exhausted ;  but  he  still  adhered  to  his 
purpose  of  going  to  Stockholm,  and,  after  resting 
a  day  or  two,  again  started,  and,  on  the  tenth  day 
from  leaving  home,  reached  that  city,  "  weary, 
with  blistered  feet,  his  knapsack  upon  his  back, 
and  his  roll  of  pictures  under  his  arm." 

After  various  adventures  for  a  few  days,  he 
obtained  lodgings  with  a  "  drunken  countryman 
from  Smiiland,  named  Meierstrom."  He  also 
succeeded  in  making  himself  known  to  Professor 
Pilo,  director  of  the  Swedish  Academy  of  Art,  who 
expressed  himself  greatly  amazed  when  he  saw 
Horberg's  pictures,  and  learned  how  little  instruc- 
tion he  had  received.  He  was  permitted  to  draw 
from  the  casts  of  the  academy,  and  made  his  first 

4.4 


224  PETER  HORBERG. 

attempt  from  that  of  the  Laocoon.  Pilo  came 
to  him,  after  a  few  hours,  praised  his  drawings, 
and  inquired  into  his  wants  and  objects.  "  There 
is  nothing  in  the  world,"  said  he  to  the  Director, 
"  that  I  desire  so  much  as  to  remain  for  some 
time  at  Stockholm ;  but  I  see  no  possibility  of 
remaining  here  a  week,  for  I  have  scarcely  half  a 
dollar ; "  "  for  I  was  ashamed,"  he  says  in  his 
biography,  "  to  tell  the  plain  truth,  that  I  had  not 
even  a  dozen  coppers." 

In  Stockholm,  Horberg  remained  eight  weeks, 
learning  the  technicalities  of  his  art,  extending 
his  acquaintance,  and  becoming  himself  known  to 
his  fellow-artists.  He  had  a  desire  to  visit  Italy ; 
and  Sergell,  the  first  Swedish  sculptor  of  his  time, 
proposed  to  Gustavus  III.,  the  reigning  monarch, 
who  was  about  to  visit  Rome,  to  allow  Horberg  to 
accompany  him.  This  request  was  refused  by 
the  king,  whose  discernment  was  not  sufficient  to 
perceive  the  real  merit  that  lay  concealed  under 
the  rude  but  modest  exterior  of  the  peasant. 
Sergell,  however,  generously  bestowed  upon  him 
his  salary  as  professor,  during  the  time  he  was 
absent  with  the  king  in  Italy :  it  amounted,  how- 
ever, to  less  than  ten  dollars,  a  sum  which  would 
seem  to  indicate  the  small  esteem  in  which  the 
arts  were  held,  or  the  extremely  few  wants  or 
modest  pretensions  of  the  first  artists  of  the  time. 
Horberg  was,  however,  presented  to  his  majesty, 
whose  generosity  and  condescension  went  so  far, 
as  to  bestow  upon  the  poor  painter  a  ticket  of 
admission  to  a  dramatic  exhibition.  "  This,"  says 
the  painter,  "was  kind,  and  the  ticket  was  a 
more  exalted  favor  than  I  then  understood  ;  but  I 
was  so  informed,  after  my  return  to  Stockholm." 


PETER  HdRBERG. 


225 


1  he  presentation  had  taken  place  at  the  palace 
of  Drotthingholm. 

After  a  residence  of  eight  weeks  at  the  capital, 
where  the  favors  he  received,  though  small,  were 
beyond  his  expectations,  he  prepared  to  return 
home,  having  greatly  increased  his  stock  of  draw- 
ings, and  with  about  four  dollars  in  his  pocket. 
"  While  I  reviewed  in  memory  my  adventures 
there"  [Stockholm],  he  says  in  his  autobiography, 
"  my  eyes  were  dimmed  wit4i  tears  of  joy,  and 
then  I  thought  upon  my  home,  and  my  forsaken 
family,  whom  I  hoped  to  rejoin  in  a  few  days." 

He  visited  the  capital  again  in  the  following 
year,  and  spent  several  months  drawing  in  the 
academy,  and  "  executing  pictures  from  his  own 
designs."  "  One  of  these,  representing  Zaleucus 
submitting  to  the  loss  of  an  eye  to  save  one  of  the 
eyes  of  his  son,  was  exhibited  at  the  academy, 
and  was  afterwards  bought  by  the  brother  of  the 
king  for  five  dollars.  The  academy  also  awarded 
him  the  third  silver  medal  for  drawing  from  the 
living  model."  He  now  became  more  known, 
and  his  professional  engagements  proportionally 
increased.  He  was  free  from  debt,  although  still 
comparatively  poor. 

In  1787,  he  again  went  to  Stockholm,  and  re- 
mained from  January  to  September.  During 
this  time  he  received  from  the  academy  their 
second  silver  medal,  and  became  a  candidate  for 
the  large  gold  medal.  This  he  did  not  obtain,  al- 
though several  of  the  members,  and  among  them 
his  friend  Sergell,  thought  he  deserved  it.  The 
picture  which  he  painted  on  this  occasion  was  sold 
for  twenty  dollars,  a  larger  sum  than  he  had  thus 
far  received  for  any  of  his  works. 


226  PETER  HORBERG. 

At  the  invitation  of  Baron  de  Geer,  the  Royal 
Chamberlain,  Horberg,  after  returning  from 
Stockholm,  from  this  which  proved  to  be  his  last 
visit,  went  to  Finspiing.  This  residence  of  the 
Baron  was  a  great  resort  of  artists,  who  enjoyed 
without  restraint  the  liberal  hospitality  of  their 
host.  For  several  years,  Horberg  spent  much 
time  there,  and  executed  some  of  his  best  works. 
The  elegant  society  which  he  there  enjoyed,  was 
very  grateful  to  his  tastes,  and  contributed,  even 
at  that  comparatively  late  period  of  his  life,  to  his 
refinement  and  intellectual  cultivation.  By  the 
advice  of  the  Baron,  he  removed  from  Smaland 
to  Ostergothland,  a  distance  of  nearly  two  hun- 
dred miles  from  his  early  home  at  Virestad,  and 
bought  a  small  farm  for  about  two  hundred  dol- 
lars. His  circumstances  remained  very  humble. 
"He  speaks  with  profound  thankfulness  of  a 
present  which  he  received  from  the  Countess 
Aurora  de  Geer,  consisting  of  two  kettles,  a  frying 
pan,  six  pewter  plates,  a  few  earthen  pots,  a  yoke 
of  oxen,  a  milch  cow,  and  four  sheep."  "  Hor- 
berg's  countryman,  the  poet  Atterbom,  observes, 
'  that  this  was  rather  aiding  his  wife,  than  bene- 
fiting him.' "  He  was  enabled,  however,  to  live 
in  frugal  independence,  and  in  the  constant  exer- 
cise of  his  art.  To  be  sure,  he  received  less  than 
he  might  have  obtained  in  the  exercise  of  any  of 
the  common  mechanic  trades ;  but  such  was  his 
attachment  to  his  art,  that  he  never  used  it  as  a 
simple  method  of  getting  money.  It  was  to  him 
in  itself  an  object  far  higher  and  better  than 
wealth.  He  painted  much  for  persons  in  his  own 
condition,  who  were  proud  that  a  poor  peasant 
could  rise  to  so  much  distinction  as  an  artist. 


PETER  HORBERG. 


227 


There  was,  too,  in  his  works  a  native  grandeur, 
which  even  the  uninstructed  of  his  countrymen 
could  understand. 

In  the  year  1800,  he  made  his  last  journey  to 
his  native  parish  of  Virestad,  and  painted  an  altar- 
piece  for  the  parish  church.  His  fortune  increased 
enough,  sometime  before  his  death,  to  enable  him 
to  purchase  another  small  farm  ;  so  that,  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  his  life,  he  gave  to  each  of  his  sons  a 
small  parcel  of  land,  reserving  only  an  annual 
rent  for  his  own  support.  He  received  also,  in 
1812,  a  pension  of  about  forty  dollars  from  the 
then  reigning  monarch  of  Sweden.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  last  years  of  his  life,  although 
in  the  main  placid  and  beautiful,  were  somewhat 
disturbed  by  the  unsympathizing  complaints  of 
some  of  his  family,  who,  unable  to  appreciate  the 
high  objects  of  his  art,  did  not  withhold  their  re- 
proaches when  he  could  no  longer  command  his 
usual  income.  He  was  thus  driven  to  pass 
much  of  his  time  in  solitude,  for  the  better  enjoy- 
ment of  which,  he  had  built  for  himself  a  studio, 
on  a  rocky  eminence,  near  his  dwelling,  where  he 
worked,  or,  when  not  at  work,  would  walk  back- 
wards and  forwards  by  the  hour  together.  To- 
wards the  last,  his  physical  powers  gradually 
failed,  till,  on  the  24th  of  January,  1816,  he  qui- 
etly departed  this  life,  at  the  age  of  70  years. 

Notwithstanding  the  unfavorable  circumstances 
in  which  he  was  placed,  his  diligence  enabled 
him  to  produce  a  vast  number  of  works.  His 
largest  works  were  his  altar-pieces  ;  and,  of  these, 
one  was  thirty  feet  long  by  twenty  high.  Of  these 
he  painted  eighty-seven.  Between  1764  and  1807, 
he  produced,  besides  altar-pieces,  five  hundred  and 


V 


Ski 

228  PETER  HORBERG. 

twenty  paintings.  Of  his  works  after  this  latter 
date,  no  list  is  preserved ;  but  the  number  must 
have  been  considerable.  The  number  of  his  draw- 
ings was  much  greater  than  that  of  his  paintings. 
He  mentions  himself,  —  "  1.  The  history  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  a  volume  consisting  of  two  hundred  and 
ninety-one  designs.  %.  A  collection  of  several 
thousand  drawings  from  gems  and  other  antiques. 
3.  Till  Eulenspiegel's  history  of  Christ,  for  Baron 
de  Geer.  4.  Traditions  concerning  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth, or  the  fabulous  history  of  Christ,  three 
hundred  and  forty-seven  designs,  of  the  size  of 
playing-cards."  His  mechanical  ingenuity  was 
also  very  great,  and  led  him  occasionally  to  pur- 
suits somewhat  diverse  from  painting.  "  With 
few  and  simple  implements,  he  executed  the  most 
ingenious  works,  and  with  a  common  knife  he 
carved  in  wood  various  objects  of  sculpture,  by 
no  means  destitute  of  artistical  merit.  He  not 
only  carved  statues  in  wood,  but  modelled  them 
in  clay,  and  then  burnt  them  in  a  brick-kiln. 
Besides  cabinet  work,  he  occupied  himself  occa- 
sionally for  many  years  in  making  violins  ;  and  as 
he  felt  an  irresistible  impulse  to  investigate  the 
movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  acquire 
some  knowledge  of  astronomy,  he  made  instru- 
ments of  wood  for  his  observations,  and  omitted 
no  opportunity  to  extend  his  astronomical  knowl- 
edge, by  conversation  or  study  of  such  works  on 
that  science  as  fell  in  his  way." 

Thus  was  he  ever  grasping  for  knowledge ;  and 
what  he  learned,  he  in  some  sort  systematized,  so 
that  his  mind  was  not  a  repository  of  barren 
facts,  but  became,  by  his  attainments,  harmonious- 
ly developed.    He  was  a  great  lover  of  music, 


PETER  HORBERG. 


229 


and  composed  some  pieces  said  to  be  characterized 
by  originality  and  deep  feeling.  He  was  fond  of 
poetry,  and  tried  his  hand  at  composition.  He 
left  in  manuscript  "  various  literary  sketches  and 
collections."  One  volume,  consisting  of  extracts, 
"  upon  the  early  history  and  mythology  of  the 
northern  kingdoms,"  "contains  many  drawings 
and  observations  upon  the  manner  in  which  the 
modern  artists  ought  to  treat  subjects  drawn  from 
the  mythology  and  mythical  history  of  the  North." 
His  most  interesting  literary  work  is  his  autobi- 
ography, composed  in  a  style  so  open,  so  simple 
and  unaffected,  as  to  make  it  extremely  interest- 
ing, and  of  much  value  as  a  contribution  to  Swe- 
dish literature.  He  speaks  without  reserve,  and 
yet  with  delicacy,  of  his  poverty  and  trials,  makes 
no  boasts  of  his  fortitude,  and  exhibits  no  discon- 
tent nor  fretfulness  ;  but  everywhere,  by  a  manly 
and  cheerful  temper,  shows  how  thoroughly  he  ap- 
preciates the  true  and  highest  purposes  of  art,  and 
with  how  few  external  advantages  he  is  contented 
to  live,  provided  the  aspirations  of  his  spirit  are 
satisfied.  He  did  not  endeavor  to  rise  above  the 
social  rank  in  which  he  was  born,  and  educated 
his  sons  with  reference  to  their  condition,  as 
peasants.  His  honor  he  derived  not  from  station, 
but  from  character. 

His  person  corresponded  to  his  traits  of  charac- 
ter. "  He  was  strongly  built,"  says  the  poet 
Atterbom,  "  rather  low  of  stature,  of  a  firm  and 
manly  carriage,  unconstrained  and  dignified  in 
manner,  with  a  lofty  forehead,  a  clear  and  gentle 
eye,  a  mouth  delicately  but  firmly  chiselled,  flow- 
ing silver  locks  beneath  his  velvet  cap,  and  neatly 
but  simply  clad  in  the  style  of  the  better  class  of 

Y.QT..  IT—  20  ■ 


230 


PETER  HORBERG. 


peasants.  It  was  thus  that  I  saw  him  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1809,  when  I  came  to  Falla,  early  one 
Sunday  morning,  with  my  brother-in-law,  who 
was  to  preach  to  a  congregation  of  miners  in  the 
open  air.  Horberg  came  a  considerable  distance 
on  foot  to  meet  my  brother-in-law,  of  whose  society 
he  was  fond.  We  sent  our  carriage  before  us, 
and  walked  with  Horberg,  by  a  romantic  forest- 
path,  to  the  city ;  the  heavens  were  blue  and 
warm,  the  birds  were  caroling,  and  the  old  painter 
was  as  joyous  as  they."  He  had  true  ideas  of  his 
art.  Of  the  painters  at  Stockholm,  he  said  on  one 
occasion  (though  without  the  last  spirit  of  detrac- 
tion), "There  were  many  who  painted  better, 
much  better,  than  he ;  but  they  had  no  ideas,  no 
grand  conceptions." 

As  an  artist,  Horberg  attempted  great  things  ; 
and  if  he  did  not  place  himself  side  by  side  with 
the  immortal  painters  of  Italy,  it  was  not  so  much 
because  he  lacked  the  genius,  as  because  he  had 
not  the  cultivation  which  they  were  blessed  with. 
"  He  became,"  says  the  Swedish  poet,  from  whom 
we  have  already  quoted,  "  but  a  fragment  of  what 
he  might  have  been,  a  melancholy  but  splendid 
ruin  of  a  structure,  which  nature  had  designed  to 
rear  in  the  grandest  proportions."  Imperfect,  in- 
deed, in  some  branches  of  his  beautiful  art,  his 
genius  was  so  true,  so  grand,  so  poetic  and  ele- 
vated, his  invention  so  rich,  his  conception  so 
original,  and  his  life  so  humble  and  pure,  that  the 
name  of  the  peasant-painter  may  well  be  men- 
tioned as  among  those  most  worthy  of  a  grateful 
remembrance  in  the  later  annals  of  Sweden. 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


Alexander  Wilson,  the  Ornithologist,  was 
born  in  Paisley,  Scotland,  about  the  year  17G6. 
He  was  early  apprenticed  to  a  weaver,  but,  while 
in  this  employment,  manifested  a  strong  desire 
for  learning,  and  spent  his  leisure  hours  in  read- 
ing and  writing.  After  being  released  from  this 
occupation,  he,  for  a  time,  became  a  pedler,  and, 
with  a  pack  on  his  back,  wandered  among  the 
beautiful  valleys  and  over  the  mountains  of  Scot- 
land. Seldom  has  one  of  that  acute  and  insinuat- 
ing craft  thought  so  little  of  trafficking  as  he  did. 
His  feelings  were  those  of  joy  and  almost  rapture 
at  the  beauties  of  nature,  and  the  entire  freedom 
with  which  he  could  enjoy  them.  "These  are 
pleasures,"  he  says  with  enthusiasm,  "  which  the 
grovelling  sons  of  interest,  and  the  grubs  of  this 
world,  know  as  little  of,  as  the  miserable  spirits, 
doomed  to  everlasting  darkness,  know  of  the  glo- 
rious regions  and  eternal  delights  of  Paradise." 
Here  was  a  pedler  indeed !  This  wandering  life 
cultivated  those  tastes  which  were  afterward  so 
strongly  and  so  happily  developed  in  this  country. 
He  became  dissatisfied  with  trading,  in  proportion 
as  he  became  in  love  with  nature ;  and,  although 
he  still  pursued  his  business  to  obtain  a  liveli- 
hood, he  indulged  his  taste  for  poetry,  and  contrib- 
uted several  essays  to  various  periodical  publica- 
tions. In  a  debating  society  with  which  he  became 
connected,  he  gained  considerable  applause  by 
poetical  discourses.    Subsequently  he  collected  his 


232 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


verses  and  published  them,  with  the  hope  of  re- 
ceiving some  pecuniary  advantage.  The  poems 
went  through  two  small  editions,  but  the  author 
gained  no  benefit  from  the  publication.  In  1792, 
he  published  another  story  in  verse,  entitled 
"Watty  and  Meg,  which,  being  printed  anonymous- 
ly, was  at  first  ascribed  to  Burns,  and  has  ever 
retained  its  popularity  in  Scotland,  as  among  the 
best  productions  of  the  Scottish  muse. 

About  the  same  time  occurred  a  circumstance 
which  probably  hastened  his  emigration  to  Amer- 
ica. He  published  a  severe  satire  upon  one  of 
the  wealthy  manufacturers,  who  had  rendered 
himself  obnoxious  by  certain  unpopular  acts. 
The  satire  was  not  so  much  relished  by  the  sub- 
ject of  it  as  by  the  workmen.  Legal  measures 
were  resorted  to.  The  author  was  discovered 
and  prosecuted  for  a  libel,  and  "  sentenced  to  a 
short  imprisonment,  and  to  burn,  with  his  own 
hands,  the  piece,  at  the  public  cross  in  the  town 
of  Paisley."  It  is  said  that  the  poet,  in  whose  mind 
was  no  vindictiveness  of  spirit,  did  not  think  of  his 
satire,  in  after  life,  with  feelings  of  satisfaction. 

Before  he  left  Paisley,  indeed,  his  generous 
feelings  got  the  mastery  of  all  other ;  and  he  asked 
the  forgiveness  of  some  who  had  felt  the  bitterness 
of  his  pen,  for  any  uneasiness  which  he  had  caused 
them.  Sometime  afterward,  his  brother  David 
came  to  America,  and  brought  with  him  a  collec- 
tion of  these  pieces ;  but  Alexander  no  sooner  took 
them  into  his  hands,  than  he  threw  them  into  the 
fire.  "  These,"  said  he,  "  were  the  sins  of  my 
youth ;  and  if  I  had  taken  my  good  old  father's 
advice,  they  would  never  have  seen  the  light." 

Not  long  after  the  events  thus  referred  to,  he 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


233 


determined  to  come  to  America,  and,  by  great 
industry  and  economy,  at  last  gained  sufficient 
funds  to  accomplish  his  purpose.  A  ship  was 
to  sail  from  Belfast,  in  Ireland.  He  left  Paisley 
on  foot,  and  at  Port  Patrick  took  passage  for 
Belfast.  On  his  arrival  he  found  the  ship  full. 
Undaunted,  however,  and  determined  not  to  re- 
turn to  Scotland,  he  consented  to  sleep  upon 
deck,  and  accordingly  embarked  in  the  ship  Swift, 
of  New  York,  bound  to  Philadelphia,  and  landed 
at  Newcastle,  Delaware,  July  14,  1794,  in  the 
28th  year  of  his  age.  He  had  but  a  few  shil- 
lings in  his  pocket,  but  he  was  buoyant  with 
hope ;  he  had  actually  set  foot  upon  the  new 
world,  and  shouldering  his  fowling-piece,  he  di- 
rected his  steps  towards  Philadelphia,  distant 
about  thirty-three  miles.  On  his  way,  he  shot  a 
red-headed  woodpecker,  which  he  thought  "  the 
most  beautiful  bird  he  had  ever  beheld." 

For  some  time  after  his  arrival  in  America,  he 
seems  to  have  doubted  to  what  employment  he 
should  devote  himself.  We  find  him  within  a 
year  engaged  as  a  copper-plate  printer ;  then  as  a 
weaver  ;  then  moving  to  Shepherdstown,  Virginia, 
and  soon  returning  to  Pennsylvania ;  then  trav- 
elling in  New  Jersey,  as  a  pedler  ;  then  opening  a 
school,  near  Frankford,  Pennsylvania ;  and  soon 
removing  to  Milestown,  where  he  remained  for 
several  years,  both  teaching  and  making  himself 
master  of  those  branches  of  learning  with  which 
he  was  not  before  acquainted. 

After  several  other  changes,  Wilson  at  last 
found  himself  situated  in  a  school,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Schuylkill,  within  four  miles  of  Philadel- 

YQI-4I,   20* 


234 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


phia,  and  near  the  botanical  garden  of  the  philos- 
opher and  naturalist,  William  Bartram. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  to  the 
future  ornithologist.  He  formed  an  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Bartram,  which  soon  ripened  into  a  per- 
manent friendship.  Wilson  had  always  been  ob- 
servant of  the  manners  of  birds,  but  had  never 
studied  them  as  a  naturalist.  Mr.  Bartram  lent 
him  the  works  of  Catesby  and  Edwards  on  nat- 
ural history,  from  which  he  derived  much  instruc- 
tion, even  while  his  own  knowledge  enabled  him 
to  correct  many  of  their  errors.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  progress  in  information,  and  his  general 
prosperity,  he  was  subject  at  times  to  great  des- 
pondency. His  sensitive  mind  could  not  bear 
the  prospect  of  a  life  of  penury  and  dependence ; 
to  which,  as  the  teacher  of  a  country  school,  he 
seemed  destined. 

During  some  of  these  periods  of  depression, 
Mr.  Lawson,  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Bartram, 
and  afterward  the  principal  engraver  of  the  plates 
for  the  Ornithology,  suggested  to  Wilson  the  em- 
ployment of  drawing.  He  consented,  but  suc- 
ceeded so  poorly  in  attempting  to  copy  the  human 
figure,  that  he  threw  his  work  aside  in  despair. 
At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Bartram,  he  then  tried 
his  hand  on  flowers,  and  felt  somewhat  encour- 
aged. Colors  were  obtained,  and  he  painted  from 
nature  a  bird  which  he  had  shot.  His  success 
aroused  all  his  energies  :  he  was  evidently  ap- 
proaching the  true  objects  of  his  life,  those  which 
his  tastes  fitted  him  for,  and  to  which  his  powers 
were  adapted. 

In  the  mean  time,  as  he  improved  in  drawing, 
he  advanced  in  a  knowledge  of  ornithology  ;  nor 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


235 


was  it  long  before  the  thought  suggested  itself 
that  it  would  not  be  an  unworthy  employment  to 
make  known  to  others  the  beauties  and  wonders 
of  his  favorite  science. 

He  accordingly  asked  the  advice  of  Mr.  Bar- 
tram,  who,  while  he  acknowledged  the  abilities 
of  Wilson,  suggested  also  the  difficulties  attendant 
upon  the  undertaking.  The  future  ornithologist 
was  not,  however,  deterred  by  them  ;  his  ingenuity 
was  ready  with  an  answer  to  all  objections,  or  his 
enthusiasm  disregarded  them.  Under  date  of 
March  12,  1804,  he  thus  writes  to  his  friend 
Lawson  :  "  I  dare  say  you  begin  to  think  me  very 
ungenerous  and  unfriendly  in  not  seeing  you  for 
so  long  a  time.  I  will  simply  state  the  cause,  and 
I  know  you  will  excuse  me.  Six  days  in  one 
week  I  have  no  more  time  than  just  to  swallow 
my  meals,  and  return  to  my  sanctum  sanctorum. 
Five  days  of  the  following  week  are  occupied  in 
the  same  routine  of  pedagoguing  matters ;  and 
the  other  two  are  sacrificed  to  that  itcli  for  draw- 
ing which  I  caught  from  your  honorable  self.  I 
never  wTas  more  wishful  to  spend  an  afternoon 
with  you.  In  three  weeks  I  shall  have  a  few 
days'  vacancy,  and  mean  to  be  in  town  chief  part 
of  the  time.  I  am  most  earnestly  bent  on  pur- 
suing my  plan  of  making  a  collection  of  all  the 
birds  in  this  part  of  North  America.  Now  I 
don't  want  you  to  throw  cold  water,  as  Shaks- 
peare  says,  on  this  notion,  Quixotic  as  it  may  ap- 
pear. I  have  been  so  long  accustomed  to  the 
building  of  airy  castles  and  brain  wind-mills,  that 
it  has  become  one  of  my  earthly  comforts  —  a 
sort  of  rough  bone,  that  amuses  me  when  sated 
with  the  dull  drudgery  of  life." 


236 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


In  the  latter  part  of  this  year,  he  undertook  a 
pedestrian  journey  to  the  Niagara  Falls,  in  com- 
pany with  two  friends.  Winter  came  upon  them 
on  their  return,  in  Genessee  county ;  one  of  his 
companions  stopped  with  some  friends,  and  the 
other  sought  a  pleasanter  mode  of  travelling. 
Wilson  persevered,  and,  after  fifty-seven  days' 
absence,  reached  home  the  7th  of  December, 
having  walked  more  than  twelve  hundred  miles. 
"  The  last  day  he  walked  forty-seven  miles."  One 
result  of  this  excursion  was  a  poem,  entitled  The 
Foresters,  which  was  published  in  the  Portfolio. 

The  toils  of  the  journey  only  increased  his  ar- 
dor to  undertake  some  more  extensive  expedition. 
He  was  in  love  with  the  woods,  and  the  wild 
pleasures  of  a  forester's  life.  His  constitution 
was  hardy  ;  he  had  no  family  to  bind  him  to  one 
spot,  and  his  whole  circumstances  tended  to  en- 
courage his  predominant  taste.  But,  while  thus 
forming  large  plans,  his  means  for  accomplishing 
them  remained  very  small.  "  The  sum  total  of 
his  funds  amounted  to  seventy-five  cents."  He 
continued,  however,  to  make  drawings  of  birds, 
which  he  submitted  to  Mr.  Bartram's  criticism. 
He  also  began  to  try  his  hand  upon  the  corres- 
ponding art  of  etching,  since  it  was  certain  that 
the  plates  in  his  projected  Ornithology  must  be 
either  etched  or  engraved.  Mr.  Lawson  furnished 
him  with  materials,  and  with  customary  enthu- 
siasm the  new  artist  applied  his  varnish,  and  com- 
menced the  operation.  "  The  next  day  after  Mr. 
Wilson  had  parted  from  his  preceptor,  the  latter, 
to  use  his  own  words,  was  surprised  to  behold 
him  bouncing  into  his  room,  crying  out,  '  I  have 
finished  my  plate  I  Let  us  bite  it  in  with  the  aqua- 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


237 


fortis  at  once,  for  I  must  have  a  proof  before  1 
leave  town!  Lawson  burst  into  laughter  at  the 
ludicrous  appearance  of  his  friend,  animated  with 
impetuous  zeal ;  and,  to  humor  him,  granted  his 
request.  The  proof  was  taken,  but  fell  far  short 
of  Mr.  Wilson's  expectations,  or  of  his  ideas  of 
correctness." 

His  succeeding  attempts  at  etching  did  not 
prove  very  satisfactory  to  himself ;  and  they  con- 
vinced him,  besides,  that  to  meet  the  demands  of 
his  taste,  the  plates  must  be  finished  by  the  en- 
graver. He  then  endeavored  to  induce  Mr. 
Lawson  to  undertake  the  work  jointly  with  him- 
self ;  a  proposition  which  that  artist  thought  best 
to  decline.  Wilson  did  not  falter  in  his  purpose,  on 
account  of  these  disappointments,  but  declared  his 
determination  to  persist  in  the  publication,  even  if 
it  cost  him  his  life.  "  I  shall  at  least,"  he  said, 
"  leave  a  small  beacon  to  point  out  where  I  per- 
ished." 

About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1806,  the 
hopes  of  our  ornithologist  were  greatly  raised  by 
the  public  announcement  that  it  was  the  purpose 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  despatch  a 
company  of  men  for  exploring  the  waters  of  Lou- 
isiana. Mr.  Wilson  was  inspired  with  the 
thought  that  here  he  might  have  an  opportunity, 
long  ardently  desired,  of  visiting  those  regions, 
and  making  the  necessary  researches  for  his  Orni- 
thology. He  accordingly  made. an  application  to 
Mr.  Jefferson,  stating  his  purpose,  and  offering 
his  services.  The  whole  was  enclosed  in  an  intro- 
ductory letter  from  Mr.  Bartram.  The  applica- 
tion was  unsuccessful:  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not 
make  any  reply  at  all.    The  wishes  of  the  orni- 


238 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


thologist  were,  however,  nearer  their  gratification 
than  he  supposed. 

Mr.  S.  F.  Bradford,  of  Philadelphia,  whose 
name  deserves  honorable  mention,  being  about  to 
publish  an  edition  of  Rees's  Cyclopedia,  engaged 
Wilson,  on  the  recommendation  of  some  of  his 
friends,  as  assistant  editor,  offering  him  a  liberal 
salary.  It  was  not  long  before  he  also  engaged 
to  publish  the  Ornithology.  It  was  a  happy  day 
for  the  frequently  baffled,  but  not  disheartened 
naturalist,  when  the  bargain  was  made,  and  his 
friend  Lawson  secured  as  the  engraver. 

In  September,  1808,  he  published  the  first 
volume  of  the  American  Ornithology.  Notwith- 
standing the  previous  announcement,  it  was  re- 
ceived by  the  public  with  great  surprise  and 
unqualified  delight.  It  was  considered  a  national 
honor,  that  a  scientific  work,  so  splendid  in  the 
style  of  its  illustrations,  could  be  produced  in  so 
young  a  country.  Mr.  "Wilson  immediately  started 
with  the  volume  in  his  hand  to  obtain  subscribers 
in  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States  ;  at  same  time 
he  constantly  kept  his  eye  open  to  gain  all  possi- 
ble information  for  the  continuation  of  the  work. 
"  I  am  fixing  my  correspondents,"  he  writes  in  a 
letter  from  Boston,  "in  every  corner  of  these 
northern  regions,  like  so  many  pickets  and  out- 
posts, so  that  scarcely  a  wren  or  tit  shall  be  able 
to  pass  along,  from  York  to  Canada,  but  I  shall 
get  intelligence  of  it." 

During  this  journey,  Wilson  received  many 
compliments  and  some  subscriptions.  He  was 
also  subjected  to  some  mortifying  disappointments. 
Some  from  whom  he  expected  at  least  sympathy 
and  encouragement,  looked  at  his  volume  with 


STY 

ALEXANDER  WILSON.  239 

indifference,  or  returned  it  to  him  with  a  cold 
compliment.  The  Governor  of  New  York,  he 
says,  "  turned  over  a  few  pages,  looked  at  a  pic- 
ture or  two ;  asked  me  my  price  ;  and,  while  in 
act  of  closing  the  book,  added,  4 1  would  not  give 
a  hundred  dollars  for  all  the  birds  you  intend  to 
describe,  even  had  I  them  alive/  Occurrences 
such  as  these  distress  me,  but  I  shall  not  lack  ar- 
dor in  my  efforts."  In  another  place  he  gives 
an  amusing  account  of  a  rebuff  which  he  received 
from  a  public  functionary  in  Pennsylvania.  "  In 
Hanover,  Penn.,  a  certain  Judge  H.  took  upon 
himself  to  say,  that  such  a  book  as  mine  ought 
not  to  be  encouraged,  as  it  was  not  within  the 
reach  of  the  commonality,  and,  therefore,  incon- 
sistent with  our  republican  institutions  !  By  the 
same  mode  of  reasoning,  which  I  did  not  dispute, 
I  undertook  to  prove  him  a  greater  culprit  than 
myself,  in  erecting  a  large,  elegant,  three-story 
brick  house,  so  much  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
commonality,  as  he  called  them,  and,  consequently, 
grossly  contrary  to  our  republican  institutions.  I 
harangued  this  Solomon  of  the  Bench  more  seri- 
ously afterwards ;  pointing  out  to  him  the  great 
influence  of  science  on  a  young  nation  like  ours, 
and  particularly  the  science  of  natural  history, 
till  he  began  to  show  such  symptoms  of  intellect 
as  to  seem  ashamed  of  what  he  had  said."  —  After 
his  return  from  the  North,  having  remained  but  a 
few  days  at  home,  he  started  on  a  tour  to  the  South, 
visiting,  in  the  course  of  it,  every  city  and  town  of 
importance  as  far  as  Savannah,  in  Georgia.  Of 
the  first  volume  but  two  hundred  copies  had  been 
printed ;  and,  although  the  list  of  subscribers  was 
not  very  much  enlarged,  the  publisher  was  encour- 

47* 


240 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


raged  to  strike  off  a  new  edition  of  three  hundred 
more.  The  second  volume  was  published  in  1810, 
and  the  adventurous  ornithologist  almost  immedi- 
ately set  out  for  New  Orleans,  by  way  of  Pitts- 
burg. He  descended  the  Ohio  alone  in  a  skiff,  as 
far  as  Louisville,  upwards  of  seven  hundred  miles. 
Here  he  sold  his  frail  bark  ;  and,  having  walked  to 
Lexington,  seventy  miles  farther,  he  purchased  a 
horse,  and,  without  a  companion  or  a  guide,  made 
his  way  through  the  wilderness  to  Natchez,  a  dis- 
tance of  six  hundred  and  seventy-eight  miles. 
Some  of  the  particulars  of  this  journey,  taken 
from  a  letter  of  the  ornithologist,  dated  at  Natchez, 
May  28,  1811,  will  give  the  best  idea  of  his  cour- 
age, enterprise,  and  general  character. 

"  I  was  advised  by  many  not  to  attempt  this 
journey  alone  ;  that  the  Indians  were  dangerous, 
the  swamps  and  rivers  almost  impassable  without 
assistance ;  and  a  thousand  other  hobgoblins  were 
conjured  up  to  dissuade  me  from  going  alone. 
But  I  weighed  all  these  matters  in  my  mind ;  and, 
attributing  a  great  deal  of  this  to  vulgar  fears  and 
exaggerated  reports,  I  equipped  myself  for  the  at- 
tempt. I  rode  an  excellent  horse,  on  whom  I 
could  depend ;  I  had  a  loaded  pistol  in  each 
pocket,  a  loaded  musket  belted  across  my  shoulder, 
a  pound  of  gunpowder  in  my  flask,  and  five  pounds 
of  shot  in  my  belt.  I  bought  some  biscuit  and 
dried  beef,  and  on  Friday  morning,  May  4th,  I 
left  Nashville.  *  *  *  Eleven  miles  from 
Nashville,  I  came  to  the  Great  Harpath,  a  stream 
of  about  fifty  yards,  which  was  running  with  great 
violence.  I  could  not  discover  the  entrance  of 
the  ford,  owing  to  the  rain  and  inundations. 
There  was  no  time  to  be  lost.    I  plunged  in,  and 


ALEXANDER  "WILSON. 


241 


almost  immediately  my  horse  was  swimming.  I 
set  his  head  aslant  the  current;  and,  being  strong, 
he  soon  landed  me  on  the  other  side.  *  *  * 
Next  day,  the  road  winded  along  the  high  ridges 
of  mountains  that  divide  the  waters  of  the  Cum- 
berland from  those  of  the  Tennessee.  I  passed  a 
few  houses  to-day ;  but  met  several  parties  of 
boatmen  returning  from  Natchez  and  New  Or- 
leans, who  gave  me  such  an  account  of  the  road, 
and  the  difficulties  they  had  met  with,  as  served 
to  stiffen  my  resolution  to  be  prepared  for  every 
thing.  These  men  were  as  dirty  as  Hottentots  ; 
their  dress,  a  shirt  and  trousers  of  canvass,  black, 
greasy,  and  sometimes  in  tatters ;  the  skin  burnt 
wherever  exposed  to  the  sun  ;  each  with  a  budget 
wrapped  up  in  an  old  blanket ;  their  beards, 
eighteen  days  old,  added  to  the  Angularity  of  their 
appearance,  which  was  altogether  savage.  These 
people  came  from  the  various  tributary  streams 
of  the  Ohio,  hired  at  forty  or  fifty  dollars  a  trip, 
to  return  back  on  their  own  expense.  Some  had 
upwards  of  eight  hundred  miles  to  travel."  "On 
Monday,  I  rode  fifteen  miles,  and  stopped  at  an 
Indian's  to  feed  my  horse.  *  *  *  I  met  to- 
day two  officers  of  the  United  States  army,  who 
gave  me  a  more  intelligent  account  of  the  road 
than  I  had  received.  I  passed  through  many  bad 
swamps  to-day ;  and,  about  five  in  the  evening, 
came  to  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee,  which  was 
swelled  by  the  rain,  and  is  about  half  a  mile  wide, 
thirty  miles  below  the  muscle  shoals,  and  just  be- 
low a  long  island  laid  down  in  your  small  map. 
A  growth  of  canes,  of  twenty  or  thirty  feet  high, 
covers  the  low  bottoms ;  and  these  cane  swamps 
are  the  gloomiest  and  most  desolate-looking  places 

VOL.  TT.  21 


242  ALEXANDER  WILSON. 

imaginable.  I  hailed  for  the  boat  as  long  as  it 
was  light,  without  effect ;  I  then  sought  out  a 
place  to  encamp,  kindled  a  large  fire,  stript  the 
canes  for  my  horse,  ate  a  bit  of  supper,  and  lay 
down  to  sleep ;  listening  to  the  owls  and  the 
Chuck-wills-widow,  a  kind  of  Whip-poor-will, 
that  is  very  numerous  here.  I  got  up  several 
times  during  the  night,  to  recruit  my  fire,  and  see 
how  my  horse  did ;  and,  but  for  the  gnats,  would 
have  slept  tolerably  well.  These  gigantic  woods 
have  a  singular  effect  by  the  light  of  a  large  fire ; 
the  whole  scene  being  circumscribed  by  impene- 
trable darkness,  except  that  in  front,  where  every 
leaf  is  strongly  defined  and  deeply  shaded.  In 
the  morning  I  hunted  until  about  six,  when  I 
again  renewed  my  shoutings  for  the  boat,  and  it 
was  not  until  near  eleven  that  it  made  its  appear- 
ance. *  *  *  The  country  now  assumed  a 
new  appearance ;  no  brush  wood  —  no  fallen  or 
rotten  timber :  one  could  see  a  mile  through  the 
woods,  which  were  covered  with  high  grass  fit  for 
mowing.  These  woods  are  burnt  every  spring, 
and  thus  are  kept  so  remarkably  clean  that  they 
look  like  the  most  elegant  noblemen's  parks.  A 
profusion  of  flowers,  altogether  new  to  me,  and 
some  of  them  very  elegant,  presented  themselves 
to  my  view  as  I  rode  along.  This  must  be  a 
heavenly  place  for  the  botanist.  The  most  notice- 
able of  these  flowers  was  a  kind  of  Sweet  William, 
of  all  tints,  from  white  to  the  deepest  crimson ;  a 
superb  thistle,  the  most  beautiful  I  had  ever  seen ; 
a  species  of  Passion-flower,  very  beautiful ;  a 
stately  plant  of  the  sunflower  family  —  the  button 
of  the  deepest  orange,  and  the  radiating  petals 
bright  carmine,  the  breadth  of  the  flower  about 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


243 


four  inches  ;  a  large  white  flower  like  a  deer's 
tail.  Great  quantities  of  the  sensitive  plant,  that 
shrunk  instantly  on  being  touched,  covered  the 
ground  in  some  places.  *  *  *  I  met  six  par- 
ties of  boatmen  to-day,  and  many  straggling  In- 
dians, and  encamped  about  sunset  near  a  small 
brook,  where  I  shot  a  turkey,  and,  on  returning  to 
my  fire,  found  four  boatmen,  who  stayed  with  me 
all  night,  and  helped  to  pick  the  bones  of  the  tur- 
key. In  the  morning  I  heard  them  gabbling  all 
round  me ;  but  not  wishing  to  leave  my  horse, 
having  no  great  faith  in  my  guests'  honesty,  I 
proceeded  on  my  journey.  This  day  I  passed 
through  the  most  horrid  swamps  I  had  ever  seen. 
They  are  covered  with  a  prodigious  growth  of 
canes  and  high  woods,  which  together  shut  out 
almost  the  whole  light  of  day  for  miles.  The 
banks  of  the  deep  and  sluggish  creeks  that  occupy 
the  centre  are  precipitous,  where  I  had  often  to 
plunge  my  horse  seven  feet  down,  into  a  bed  of 
deep  clay  up  to  his  belly,  from  which  nothing 
but  great  strength  and  exertion  could  have  rescued 
him ;  the  opposite  shore  was  equally  bad,  and  beg- 
gars all  description.  For  an  extent  of  several 
miles,  on  both  sides  of  these  creeks,  the  darkness 
of  night  obscures  every  object  around.  *  *  * 
About  half  an  hour  before  sunset,  being  within  sight 
of  the  Indian's,  where  I  intended  to  lodge,  the 
evening  being  perfectly  calm  and  clear,  I  laid  the 
reins  on  my  horse's  neck,  to  listen  to  a  mocking- 
bird, the  first  I  had  heard  in  the  Western  country, 
which,  perched  on  the  top  of  a  dead  tree  before 
the  door,  was  pouring  out  a  torrent  of  melody.  I 
think  I  never  heard  so  excellent  a  performer.  I 
had  alighted  and  was  fastening  my  horse,  when, 


244 


ALEXANDER  "WILSON. 


hearing  the  report  of  a  rifle  immediately  beside 
me,  I  looked  up,  and  saw  the  poor  mocking-bird 
fluttering  to  the  ground;  one  of  the  savages  had 
marked  his  elevation,  and  barbarously  shot  him. 
I  hastened  over  into  the  yard,  and,  walking  up  to 
him,  told  him  that  was  bad,  very  bad  !  —  that  this 
voor  bird  had  come  from  a  far  distant  country  to 
sing  to  him,  and  that  in  return  he  had  cruelly 
killed  him.  I  told  him  the  Great  Spirit  was 
otfended  at  such  cruelty,  and  that  he  would  lose 
many  a  deer  for  doing  so.  ****** 

"  On  the  Wednesday  following,  I  was  assailed 
by  a  tremendous  storm  of  rain,  wind,  and  lightning, 
until  I  and  my  horse  were  both  blinded  with  the 
deluge,  and  unable  to  go  on.  I  sought  the  first 
most  open  place,  and  dismounting  stood  for  half 
an  hour  under  the  most  pr  >fuse  heavenly  shower- 
bath  I  ever  enjoyed.  The  roaring  of  the  storm 
'  as  terrible ;  several  trees  around  me  were 
broken  off  and  torn  up  by  the  roots,  and  those 
mat  stood  were  bent  almost  to  the  ground  ;  limbs 
of  trees  of  several  hundred  weight  flew  past  within 
a  few  yards  of  me,  and  I  was  astonished  how  I 
escaped.  I  would  rather  take  my  chance  in  a 
field  of  battle,  than  in  such  a  tornado  again. 

"On  the  14th  day  of  my  journey,  at  noon,  I 
arrived  at  this  place,  having  overcome  every  obsta- 
cle, alone,  and  without  being  acquainted  with  the 
country ;  and,  what  surprised  the  boatmen  more, 
without  whiskey.  *  #  *  The  best  view  of 
the  place  and  surrounding  scenery  is  from  the 
old  Spanish  fort,  on  the  south  side  of  the  town, 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant.  From  this  high 
point,  looking  up  the  river,  Natchez  lies  on  your 
right,  a  mingled  group  of  green  trees  and  white 


S&3 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


245 


and  red  houses,  occupying  an  uneven  plain,  much 
washed  into  ravines,  rising  as  it  recedes  from  the 
bluff,  a  high  precipitous  bank  of  the  river.  *  * 
On  your  left  you  look  down,  at  a  depth  of  two  or 
three  hundred  feet,  on  the  river  winding  majesti- 
cally to  the  south.  This  part  of  the  river  and 
shore  is  the  general  rendezvous  of  all  the  arks  or 
Kentucky  boats,  several  hundreds  of  which  are 
at  present  lying  moored  there,  loaded  with  the 
produce  of  the  thousand  shores  of  this  noble  river. 
The  busy  multitudes  below  present  a  perpetually 
varying  picture  of  industry ;  and  the  noise  and 
uproar,  softened  by  the  distance,  with  the  contin- 
ual crowing  of  the  poultry  with  which  many  of 
these  arks  are  filled,  produce  cheerful  and  exhil- 
arating ideas.  The  majestic  Mississippi,  swelled 
by  his  ten  thousand  tributary  streams,  of  a  pale 
brown  color,  half  a  mile  wide,  and  spotted  with 
trunks  of  trees,  that  show  the  different  threads  of 
the  current  and  its  numerous  eddies,  bears  his 
depth  of  water  past  in  silent  grandeur.  Seven 
gunboats,  anchored  at  equal  distances  along  the 
stream,  with  their  ensigns  displayed,  add  to  the 
effect.  *  *  *  The  whole  country  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  from  south  round  to  west  and  north, 
presents  to  the  eye  one  universal  level  ocean  of 
forest,  bounded  only  by  the  horizon.  So  perfect 
is  this  vast  level,  that  not  a  leaf  seems  to  rise 
above  the  plain,  as  if  shorn  by  the  hand  of 
heaven.  At  this  moment,  while  I  write,  a  terrific 
thunder-storm,  with  all  its  towering  assemblage 

'  CO 

of  black,  alpine  clouds,  discharging  living  light- 
ning in  every  direction,  overhangs  this  vast  level, 
and  gives  a  magnificence  and  sublime  effect  to  the 


whole." 


9- 


VOL.  II. 


21* 


246 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


From  Natchez  our  traveller  continued  his  jour- 
ney to  New  Orleans,  and,  as  the  sickly  season  was 
approaching,  soon  took  passage  in  a  ship  bound 
to  New  York,  where  he  arrived  on  the  thirtieth 
of  July,  having  considerably  enlarged  his  stock  of 
materials,  and  gained  some  new  subscribers. 

In  September,  1812,  Mr.  Wilson  started  to 
visit  his  subscribers  at  the  East.  At  Haverhill, 
N.  H.,  he  was  the  subject  of  a  ludicrous  mistake. 
The  inhabitants,  "  perceiving  among  them  a 
stranger  of  very  inquisitive  habits,  and  who 
evinced  great  zeal  in  exploring  the  country,  saga- 
ciously concluded  that  he  was  a  spy  from  Canada, 
employed  in  taking  sketches  of  the  place  to  facil- 
itate the  invasion  of  the  enemy.  Under  these 
impressions  it  was  thought  conducive  to  the  public 
safety  that  Mr.  Wilson  should  be  apprehended ; 
and  he  was  accordingly  taken  into  the  custody 
of  a  magistrate,  who,  on  being  made  acquainted 
with  his  character  and  the  nature  of  his  visit, 
politely  dismissed  him,  with  many  apologies  for 
the  mistake." 

During  the  remainder  of  this  year  and  the  first 
half  of  1813,  he  proceeded  in  his  work  with  great 
assiduity.  The  difficulties  he  had  to  contend  with 
were  numerous  and  harassing.  The  greatest  of 
them  was  his  poverty.  He  labored  "  without 
patron,  fortune,  or  recompense."  His  only  re- 
source, now  that  his  duties  as  assistant  editor  of 
the  Cyclopedia  were  finished,  was  the  coloring  of 
the  plates.  This  was  a  delicate  task,  which  he 
entrusted  to  others  with  hesitation,  and  gener- 
ally only  to  be  disappointed  with  the  result. 
When  his  friends  urged  him  to  refrain  from  his 
exhausting  labors,  he  would  reply  that  "life  is 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


247 


Bhort,  and  without  exertion  nothing  can  be  per- 
formed." 

The  seventh  volume  of  the  Ornithology  was 
published  in  the  early  part  of  1813,  and  lie  imme- 
diately made  preparations  for  the  succeeding  vol- 
ume, the  letterpress  of  which  was  completed  in 
August.  He  was  not  permitted  to  see  it  pub- 
lished. After  an  illness  of  but  few  days'  duration, 
a  disease  which  might,  in  his  ordinary  vigor, 
have  been  thrown  off,  terminated  his  life  on  the 
23d  of  August,  in  the  forty-seventh  year  of  his 
age. 

He  had  often  expressed  the  wish,  that,  at  his 
decease,  he  might  be  buried  where  the  birds  might 
sing  over  his  grave  ;  but  those  who  were  with  him 
at  the  last,  were  unacquainted  with  this  desire, 
and  his  remains  were  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery 
of  the  Swedish  church,  in  Southwark,  Phila- 
delphia. 

In  his  person,  Wilson  was  tall,  slender,  and 
handsome ;  his  eye  was  intelligent,  and  his  coun- 
tenance expressive  of  a  consciousness  of  intellec- 
tual resources  above  those  of  most  with  whom  he 
associated.  His  conversation  and  his  letters  were 
remarkable  for  liveliness,  force,  and  originality. 
Although  much  attached  to  his  new  home  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  he  never  forgot  the  friends 
whom  he  had  left  on  the  other.  In  a  letter  to  his 
father,  written  after  the  publication  of  the  first 
volume  of  the  Ornithology,  he  says :  "  I  would 
willingly  give  a  hundred  dollars  to  spend  a  few 
days  with  you  all  in  Paisley  ;  but,  like  a  true 
bird  of  passage,  I  would  again  wing  my  way 
across  the  western  waste  of  waters,  to  the  peace- 
ful and  happy  regions  of  America.     *     *  * 


248 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


Let  me  know,  my  dear  father,  how  you  live  and 
how  you  enjoy  your  health  at  your  advanced  age. 
I  trust  the  publication  I  have  now  commenced, 
and  which  has  procured  for  me  reputation  and 
respect,  will  also  enable  me  to  contribute  to  your 
independence  and  comfort,  in  return  for  what  I 
owe  you.  To  my  step-mother,  sisters,  brothers, 
and  friends,  I  beg  to  be  remembered  affection- 
ately." 

The  work  which  he  produced  is  a  great  honor 
to  the  country  (an  honor  frequently  acknowledged 
by  distinguished  foreigners) ;  and  although  it 
yields  to  the  still  more  splendid  production  of 
Audubon,  yet  time  will  enhance,  not  detract  from, 
the  honor  due  to  so  zealous,  persevering,  and  in- 
dustrious a  naturalist.  His  descriptions  we  value, 
not  only  for  their  accuracy,  but  for  the  fine  poetic 
sensibility  which  they  so  often  display.  "  We 
need  no  other  evidence  of  his  unparalled  industry, 
than  the  fact,  that  of  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
eight  species  which  have  been  figured  and  de- 
scribed in  his  Ornithology,  fifty-six  of  these  have 
not  been  noticed  by  any  former  naturalist ;  and 
several  of  the  latter  number  are  so  extremely 
rare,  that  the  specimens  from  which  the  figures 
were  taken,  were  the  only  ones  that  he  was  ever 
enabled  to  obtain." 

The  most  prominent  trait  of  Wilson  was  his 
general  sympathy  with  nature.  Every  rock,  ev- 
ery tree,  every  flower,  every  rivulet,  had  a  voice 
for  him.  No  little  bird  sung  which  did  not  sing 
for  his  pleasure,  or  to  tell  him  some  story. 
Though  obliged  by  his  art  to  take  the  life  of  many 
a  beautiful  warbler,  he  never  did  so  for  the  sake 
of  a  cruel  sport.    His  "  victims "  were  after  all 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


249 


his  "  friends,"  for  whom  he  never  ceased  to  plead, 
and  whom  he  always  commended  to  the  kind  care 
of  the  farmer.    The  nimble  woodpecker  he  as- 
serted to  be  a  fellow-worker  with  man,  destroying 
only  the  vermin  which  would  otherwise  injure  the 
trees  and  the  gardens.    He  defended  the  cat-bird 
against  the  prejudices  of  men  and  boys ;  for  which 
prejudices,  he  says,  he  never  heard  any  reason 
but  that  they  hated  cat-birds,  just  as  some  men  say 
they  hate  Frenchmen.    Even  if  king-birds  did  de- 
stroy bees,  it  was  not  with  him  a  good  argument 
for  their  extermination.   "  In  favor  of  the  orchard 
oriole,"  says  a  very  pleasant  biographer,  "  he 
shows,  that,  while  he  destroys  insects  without 
number,  he  never  injures  the  fruit;  he  has  seen 
instances  in  which  the  entrance  to  his  nest  was 
half  closed  up  with  clusters  of  apples ;  but  so  far 
from  being  tempted  with  the  luxury,  he  passed 
them  always  with  gentleness  and  caution.  He 
enters  into  a  deliberate  calculation  of  the  exact 
value  of  the  red-winged  blackbird,  which  certainly 
bears  no  good  reputation  on  the  farm ;  showing, 
that  allowing  a  single  bird  fifty  insects  in  a  day, 
which  would  be  short  allowance,  a  single  pair 
would  consume  twelve  thousand  in  four  months ; 
and  if  there  are  a  million  pairs  of  these  birds  in 
the  United  States,  the  amount  of  insects  is  less  by 
twelve  thousand  millions,  than  if  the  red-wing 
were  exterminated."    Sometimes  he  took  upon 
himself  to  be  the  avenger  of  the  wrongs  of  his 
feathered  friends.    "  On  one  occasion,"  says  the 
same  writer,  "  a  wood  thrush,  to  whose  delightful 
melody  he  had  often  listened  till  night  began  to 
darken  and  the  fire-flies  to  sparkle  in  the  woods, 
was  suddenly  missing,  and  its  murder  was  traced 


250  ALEXANDER  WILSON. 

to  the  hawk,  by  the  broken  feathers  and  fragments 
of  the  wing;  he  declares  that  he  solemnly  re- 
solved, the  next  time  he  met  with  a  hawk,  to  send 
it  to  the  shades,  and  thus  discharge  the  duty 
assigned  to  the  avenger  of  blood." 

Towards  all  animals  he  was  sincerely  humane. 
A  beautiful  little  incident,  which  he  relates,  will 
illustrate  this :  —  "  One  of  my  boys  caught  a  mouse 
in  school  a  few  days  ago,  and  directly  marched 
up  to  me  with  his  prisoner.  I  set  about  drawing 
it  that  same  evening  ;  and,  all  the  while,  the  pant- 
ings  of  its  little  heart  showed  that  it  was  in  the 
most  extreme  agonies  of  fear.  I  had  intended  to 
kill  it  in  order  to  fix  it  in  the  claws  of  a  stuffed 
owl ;  but  happening  to  spill  a  few  drops  of  water 
where  it  was  tied,  it  lapped  it  up  with  such  eager- 
ness, and  looked  up  in  my  face  with  such  an 
expression  of  supplicating  terror,  as  perfectly 
overcame  me.  I  immediately  untied  it,  and  re- 
stored it  to  life  and  liberty.  The  agonies  of  a 
prisoner  at  the  stake,  while  the  fire  and  instru- 
ments of  torture  are  preparing,  could  not  be  more 
severe  than  the  sufferings  of  that  poor  mouse ; 
and,  insignificant  as  the  object  was,  I  felt  at  that 
moment  the  sweet  sensation  that  mercy  leaves  on 
the  mind,  when  she  triumphs  over  cruelty." 

As  might  be  supposed,  Wilson  was  a  shrewd 
observer,  and  independent  in  his  opinions.  He 
had  no  faith  in  the  stories  of  birds  being  fascinated 
by  snakes,  and  utterly  ridiculed  the  assertions  of 
some  naturalists,  that  swallows  spend  the  winter 
torpid  in  the  trunks  of  old  trees,  or  in  the  mud 
with  eels  at  the  bottom  of  ponds. 

An  admirable  trait  of  his  character  was  a  love 
of  justice  and  truth.    In  his  dealings  with  others, 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


r6  9 

251 


he  was  honorable  and  generous.  Extremely  tem- 
perate in  eating  and  drinking,  he  was  able  to  en- 
dure the  necessary  fatigues  and  privations  atten- 
dant on  his  wandering  life,  without  sinking  under 
them,  or  contracting  dangerous  diseases.  His 
fault  was  an  irritability  of  temper ;  but  this  we  can 
pardon  when  counterbalanced  by  so  many  virtues, 
while  from  his  life  we  may  draw  an  encouraging 
lesson  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  persever- 
ance, industry,  and  self-reliance. 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


Robert  Bloomfield,  the  author  of  the  "Far- 
mer's Boy,"  was  born  in  1766,  at  a  small  village 
in  Suffolk,  England.  His  father  died  before 
Robert  was  a  year  old.  His  mother  was  left  with 
the  charge  of  five  other  children.  In  these  cir- 
cumstances, in  order  to  obtain  a  maintenance  for 
herself  and  her  family,  she  opened  a  school,  and, 
of  course,  taught  her  own  children  the  elements 
of  reading,  along  with  those  of  her  neighbors. 
The  only  school  education  which  Robert  ever  re- 
ceived, in  addition  to  what  his  mother  gave  him, 
was  two  or  three  months'  instruction  in  writing  at 
a  school  in  the  town  of  Ixworth.  At  the  time 
when  he  was  sent  to  this  seminary,  he  was  in  his 
seventh  year ;  and  he  was  taken  away  so  soon  in 
consequence  of  the  second  marriage  of  his  mother. 
Her  new  husband,  probably,  did  not  choose  to  be 
at  any  expense  in  educating  the  children  of  his 
predecessor. 

*Wre  have  no  account  in  what  manner  Robert 
spent  his  time  from  his  seventh  to  his  eleventh 
year ;  but  at  this  age  he  was  taken  into  the  ser- 
vice of  a  brother  of  his  mother,  a  Mr.  Austin, 
who  was  a  respectable  farmer  on  the  lands  of  the 
Duke  of  Grafton.  His  uncle  treated  him  exactly 
as  he  did  his  other  servants,  but  that  was  kindly, 
and  just  as  he  treated  his  own  sons.  Robert,  like 
all  the  rest  of  the  household,  labored  as  hard  as 
he  was  able ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  com- 
fortably fed  and  lodged,  although  his  board  seems 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


253 


to  have  been  all  be  received  for  his  work.  His 
mother  undertook  to  provide  him  with  the  few 
clothes  which  he  needed,  and  this  was  more  than 
she  well  knew  how  to  do.  Indeed  she  found  so 
much  difficulty  in  fulfilling  her  engagement,  that 
she  at  length  wrote  to  two  of  her  eldest  sons,  who 
were  employed  in  London  as  shoemakers,  request- 
ing them  to  assist  her,  by  trying  to  do  something 
for  their  brother,  who  "  was  so  small  of  his  age," 
she  added,  "  that  Mr.  Austin  said  that  he  was  not 
likely  to  be  able  to  get  his  living  by  hard  labor." 
To  this  application  her  son  George  wrote  in  reply, 
that,  if  she  would  let  Robert  come  to  town,  he 
would  teach  him  to  make  shoes,  and  his  other 
brother,  Nathaniel,  would  clothe  him.  The  anx- 
ious and  affectionate  mother  assented  to  this  pro- 
posal ;  but  she  could  not  be  satisfied  without 
accompanying  her  son  to  the  metropolis,  and 
putting  him  herself  into  his  brother's  hands. 
"  She  charged  me,"  writes  Mr.  George  Bloom- 
field,  "  as  I  valued  a  mother's  blessing,  to  watch 
over  him,  to  set  good  examples  for  him,  and  never 
to  forget  that  he  had  lost  his  father." 

When  Robert  came  to  London,  he  was  in  his 
fifteenth  year.  What  acquaintance  he  had  with 
books,  at  this  time,  is  not  stated ;  but  it  must  have 
been  extremely  scanty.  We  find  no  notice,  in- 
deed, of  his  having  been  in  the  habit  of  reading 
at  all,  while  he  was  with  Mr.  Austin.  The  place 
in  which  the  boy  was  received  by  his  two  broth- 
ers was  a  garret  in  a  court  in  Bell  Alley,  Cole- 
man Street,  where  they  had  two  turn-up  beds,  and 
five  of  them  worked  together.  "  As  we  were  all 
single  men,"  says  George,  "  lodgers  at  a  shilling 
per  week  each,  our  beds  were  coarse,  and  all  things 

vol.  ii.  22 


254 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIEXD. 


far  from  being  clean  and  snug,  like  what  Robert 
had  left  at  Sapiston.  Robert  was  our  man  to 
fetch  all  things  to  hand.  At  noon  he  brought  our 
dinners  from  the  cook's  shop ;  and  any  one  of  our 
fellow-workmen,  that  wanted  to  have  any  thing 
brought  in,  would  send  Robert,  and  assist  in  his 
work,  and  teach  him  for  a  recompense  for  his 
trouble.  Every  day  when  the  boy  from  the  pub- 
lic house  came  for  the  pewter  pots,  and  to  learn 
what  porter  was  wanted,  he  always  brought  the 
yesterday's  newspaper.  The  reading  of  this 
newspaper,  we  had  been  used  to  take  by  turns  ; 
but,  after  Robert  came,  he  mostly  read  for  us,  be- 
cause his  time  was  of  the  least  value."  The 
writer  goes  on  to  state,  that  in  this  his  occupation 
of  reader  of  the  newspapers,  Robert  frequently 
met  with  words  which  were  new  to  him,  and 
which  he  did  not  understand  —  a  circumstance  of 
which  he  often  complained.  So  one  day  his 
brother,  happening  to  see,  on  a  book-stall,  a  small 
English  dictionary,  which  had  been  very  ill  used, 
bought  it  for  him,  for  four-pence.  This  volume 
was  to  Robert  a  valuable  treasure ;  and,  by  con- 
sulting and  studying  it,  he  soon  learned  to  com- 
prehend perfectly  whatever  he  read.  The  pro- 
nunciation of  some  of  the  hard  words,  however, 
caused  him  much  trouble ;  but  by  an  auspicious 
circumstance  he  was  at  length  put  into  the  way 
of  having  his  difficulties  here  also  considerably 
diminished.  One  Sabbath  evening,  he  and  his 
brother  chanced  to  walk  into  a  dissenting  meeting- 
house in  the  Old  Jewry,  where  an  individual  of 
great  popularity  and  talent  was  delivering  a  dis- 
course. This  was  Mr.  Fawcet.  His  manner 
was  highly  rhetorical.    Robert   was   so  much 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


255 


struck  by  his  oratory,  that,  from  this  time,  he 
made  a  point  of  regularly  attending  the  chapel 
every  Sabbath  evening.  In  addition  to  the  higher 
improvement  of  Mr.  Fawcet's  discourses,  he  learnt 
from  him  the  proper  accentuation  of  difficult 
words,  which  he  had  little  chance  of  hearing  pro- 
nounced elsewhere.  He  also  accompanied  his 
brother  sometimes,  though  not  often,  to  a  debating 
society.  Besides  the  newspapers,  too,  he  at  this 
time  read  aloud  to  his  brothers  and  their  fellow- 
workmen  several  books  of  considerable  extent  — 
a  history  of  England,  British  Traveller,  and  a  ge- 
ography —  a  sixpenny  number  of  each  of  which 
in  folio  they  took  in  every  week.  Robert  spent 
in  this  way  about  as  many  hours  every  week  in 
reading,  as  boys  generally  do  in  play. 

These  studies,  even  though  somewhat  reluc- 
tantly applied  to  by  Robert,  doubtless  had  consid- 
erable effect  in  augmenting  the  boy's  knowledge, 
and  otherwise  enlarging  his  mind.  But  it  was  a 
work  different  from  any  of  those  which  have  been 
mentioned,  which  first  awakened  his  literary  ge- 
nius. "  I  at  this  time,"  says  Mr.  George  Bloom- 
field,  "  read  the  London  Magazine,  and  in  that 
work  about  two  sheets  were  set  apart  for  a  Review. 
Robert  seemed  always  eager  to  read  this  Review. 
Here  he  could  see  what  the  literary  men  were 
doing,  and  learn  how  to  judge  of  the  merits  of  the 
works  which  came  out ;  and  I  observed  that  he 
always  looked  at  the  poet's  corner.  One  day  he 
repeated  a  song  which  he  composed  to  an  old 
tune.  I  was  much  surprised  that  he  should  make 
so  smooth  verses ;  so  I  persuaded  him  to  try 
whether  the  editor  of  our  paper  would  give  them 
a  place  in  the  poet's  corner.    He  succeeded,  and 


256 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


they  were  printed."  After  this,  Bloomfield  con- 
tributed other  pieces  to  the  same  publication  into 
which  his  verses  had  been  admitted ;  and  under 
the  impulse  of  its  newly  kindled  excitement,  his 
mind  would  seem  to  have  suddenly  made  a  start 
forwards,  which  could  not  escape  the  observation 
of  his  associates.  His  brother  and  fellow-work- 
men in  the  garret  began  to  get  instruction  from 
him.  Shortly  after,  upon  removing  to  other  lodg- 
ings, they  found  themselves  in  the  same  apart- 
ment with  a  singular  character  ;  a  person  named 
James  Kay,  a  native  of  Dundee.  He  was  a  mid- 
dle-aged man,  and  of  a  good  understanding.  He 
had  many  books,  and  some  which  he  did  not 
value ;  such  as  The  Seasons,  Paradise  Lost,  and 
some  novels.  These  books  he  lent  to  Robert, 
who  spent  all  his  leisure  hours  in  reading  The 
Seasons.  In  this  book  he  took  great  delight. 
This  first  inspired  him,  in  all  probability,  with  the 
thought  of  composing  a  long  poem  on  rural  sub- 
jects. The  design  was  also  favored,  in  some  de- 
gree, by  a  visit  of  two  months,  which  he  was  in- 
duced to  pay  about  this  time  to  his  native  district. 
On  this  occasion,  his  old  master,  Mr.  Austin, 
kindly  invited  him  to  make  his  house  his  home  ; 
and  the  opportunity  he  thus  had  of  reviewing, 
with  a  more  informed  eye,  the  scenes  in  which  he 
had  spent  his  early  years,  could  hardly  fail  to  act, 
with  a  powerful  effect,  in  exciting  his  imagination. 
It  was  at  last  arranged  that  he  should  be  taken  as 
an  apprentice  by  his  brother's  landlord,  who  was 
a  freeman  of  the  city ;  and  he  returned  to  Lon- 
don. He  was  at  this  time  eighteen  years  of  age. 
It  was  not  intended  that  his  master  should  ever 
avail  himself  of  the  power  which  the  indentures 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD.  257 

gave  him,  and  he  behaved  in  this  matter  very 
honorably.  Robert,  in  two  years  more,  learnt  to 
work  very  expertly  at  the  shoemaking  business. 
For  some  years  after  this,  his  literary  perform- 
ances seem  to  have  amounted  merely  to  a  few 
effusions  in  verse,  which  he  used  generally  to 
transmit  in  letters  to  his  brother,  who  had  now 
gone  to  live  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  in  his  native 
county.  Meanwhile  he  studied  music,  and  be- 
came a  good  player  on  the  violin. 

About  this  time  he  was  married,  and  hired  a 
room  in  the  second  story  of  a  house  in  Coleman 
Street.  The  landlord  gave  him  leave  to  work  at 
his  trade  in  the  light  garret  two  flights  of  stairs 
higher. 

It  was  while  he  sat  plying  his  trade  in  the  gar- 
ret, in  Bell  Alley,  with  six  or  seven  other  work- 
men around  him,  that  Bloomfield  composed  the 
work  which  first  made  his  talents  generally  known, 
and  for  which  principally  he  continues  to  be  re- 
membered, —  his  "  Farmer's  Boy."  It  is  a  very 
interesting  fact,  that,  notwithstanding  the  many 
elements  of  disturbance  and  interruption  in  the 
midst  of  which  the  author  must,  in  such  a  situa- 
tion, have  had  to  proceed  through  his  task,  nearly 
the  half  of  this  poem  was  completed  before  he 
committed  a  line  of  it  to  paper.  This  is  an  un- 
common instance  both  of  memory  and  of  self- 
abstraction.  His  feat,  on  this  occasion,  appears 
to  have  amounted  to  the  composing  and  recollect- 
ing of  nearly  six  hundred  lines,  without  the  aid 
of  any  record.  The  production  of  all  this  poetry, 
in  the  circumstances  which  have  been  mentioned, 
perhaps  deserves  to  be  accounted  a  still  more 
wonderful  achievement  than  its  retention. 

VOL.  LL  22* 


EOBF.RT  BLOOMFIELD. 


When  the  "  Farmer's  Boy "  was  finished, 
Bloomlield  offered  it  to  several  hooksellers,  none 
of  whom  received  it  favorably.  The  editor  of 
the  Monthly  Magazine,  in  the  number  for  Sep- 
tember, 1823,  gives  the  following  account  of  his 
appearance  :  — "  He  brought  his  poem  to  our 
office ;  and,  though  his  unpolished  appearance, 
his  coarse  handwriting,  and  wretched  orthogra- 
phy, afforded  no  prospect  that  his  production 
could  be  printed,  yet  he  found  attention  by  his 
repeated  calls,  and  by  the  humility  of  his  expec- 
tations, which  were  limited  to  half  a  dozen  copies 
of  the  Magazine.  At  length,  on  his  name  being 
announced  where  a  literary  gentleman,  particu- 
larly conversant  in  rural  economy,  happened  to 
be  present,  the  poem  was  finally  reexamined  ;  and 
its  general  aspect  excited  the  risibility  of  that 
gentleman  in  so  pointed  a  manner,  that  Bloomfield 
was  called  into  the  room,  and  exhorted  not  to 
waste  his  time,  and  neglect  his  employment,  in 
making  vain  attempts,  and  particularly  in  tread- 
ing on  ground  which  Thomson  had  sanctified. 
His  earnestness  and  confidence,  however,  led  the 
editor  to  advise  him  to  consult  his  countryman, 
Mr.  Capel  Lofft,  of  Trooton,  to  whom  he  gave 
him  a  letter  of  introduction.  On  his  departure, 
the  gentleman  present  warmly  complimented  the 
editor  on  the  sound  advice  which  he  had  given 
the  '  poor  fellow  ; '  and  it  was  mutually  conceived 
that  an  industrious  man  was  thereby  likely  to  be 
saved  from  a  ruinous  infatuation." 

Mr.  Lofft  in  time  received  the  poem,  and  soon 
came  to  the  conclusion,  that,  notwithstanding  its 
forbidding  aspect,  it  possessed  original  merit  of  a 
high  order.    Through  his  exertions  it  was  sold  to 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


259 


the  publishers,  Messrs.  Vernor  and  Hood,  for  £50. 
These  gentlemen  subsequently  acted  very  liberally 
in  giving  to  the  poet  an  additional  sum  of  £200, 
and  an  interest  in  the  copyright  of  his  production. 
As  soon  as  published,  the  poem  was  received  with 
unexpected  admiration.  It  was  praised  by  literary 
men  and  critics,  and  read  by  every  body.  This 
might  seem  the  more  remarkable  because  of  its 
resemblance,  at  the  first  sight,  to  the  "  Seasons  " 
of  Thomson.  Like  that  poet  of  nature,  he  sings  of 
"  Spring,"  "  Summer,"  "  Autumn,"  and  "  Winter." 
But  the  resemblance  is  almost  confined  to  the 
mere  announcement  of  the  themes ;  for  while 
Thomson  weaves  into  his  poem  the  various  events 
of  the  rolling  year,  wherever  witnessed  or  however 
produced,  Bloomfield  confines  himself  to  the  hum- 
ble affairs  of  the  farm.  It  is,  indeed,  his  own  early 
life,  that  he  lives  over  again.  His  tender  imagi- 
nation hallows  the  lowly  paths  which  his  boyish 
footsteps  trod,  and  out  of  ordinary  and  vulgar 
events  gathers  the  themes  of  poetry.  Thus  do 
fragrant  and  beautiful  flowers  grow  from  the 
rankest  soil.  It  is  not  nature  which  is  vulgar ; 
but  we,  with  our  gross  conceptions,  make  it  appear 
so.  He,  from  whose  eyes  the  scales  have  fallen, 
may  see  in  events  the  most  common  and  lowly,  a 
soul  of  beauty. 

Bloomfield  sufficiently  indicates  the  course  of 
his  poem,  in  the  invocation  with  which  the  first 
brief  canto  opens  :  — 

"  0  come,  blest  Spirit !  whatsoe  'er  thou  art. 
Thou  kindling  warmth  that  hoverest  round  my  heart, 
Sweet  inmate,  hail !  thou  source  of  sterling  joy, 
That  poverty  itself  cannot  destroy, 
Be  thou  my  muse ;  and  faithful  still  to  me, 
Retrace  the  paths  of  wild  obscuritv. 

ki 


260 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


No  deeds  of  arms  my  humble  lines  rehearse ; 
No  alpine  wonders  thunder  through  my  verse ; 
The  roaring  cataract,  the  snow-topt  hill. 
Inspiring  awe,  till  breath  itself  stands  still ; 
Nature's  sublimer  scenes  ne'er  charmed  mine  eyes, 
Nor  science  led  me  through  the  boundless  skies. 
From  meaner  objects  far  my  raptures  flow : 
O  point  these  raptures  !  bid  my  bosom  glow ! 
And  lead  my  soul  to  extacies  of  praise 
For  all  the  blessings  of  my  infant  days  ! 
Bear  me  through  regions  where  gay  fancy  dwells ; 
But  mould  to  truth's  fair  form  what  memory  tells." 

The  poem  throughout  is  characterized  by  sim- 
plicity and  truth  ;  and  in  these  respects,  as  well  as 
in  picturesqueness,  pathos,  and  strictly  pastoral 
imagery,  it  probably  equals  any  poem  of  the  kind 
ever  published.  Within  the  first  three  years  after 
its  appearance,  seven  editions,  comprising  in  all 
twenty-six  thousand  copies,  were  printed,  and 
new  impressions  have  since  been  repeatedly  called 
for.  In  1805,  it  was  translated  into  Latin  by  Mr. 
Clubbe.  It  was  also  translated  into  French,  un- 
der the  title  of  Le  Valet  du  Fermier. 

From  various  sources  the  successful  poet  re- 
ceived substantial  marks  of  the  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held.  Subscriptions  were  raised  for  him ; 
and  many  of  the  nobility,  with  the  Duke  of  York 
at  their  head,  made  him  valuable  presents.  The 
Duke  of  Grafton  settled  upon  him  a  small  annuity, 
and  made  him  an  under  sealer  in  the  seal-office. 
Besides  this,  the  sale  of  the  work  itself  brought 
him  in  a  considerable  sum.  No  wonder  he  said 
that  "  his  good  fortune  appeared  to  him  like  a 
dream." 

The  circumstances  of  his  subsequent  life  were 
not  so  happy  as  this  auspicious  commencement  of 
his  literary  career  seemed  to  promise.    Ill  health 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


261 


obliged  liim  to  give  up  his  post  at  the  seal-office, 
and  he  again  resorted  to  his  old  trade  of  shoe- 
making,  adding  to  it  the  making  of  JEolian  harps. 
Having  engaged  in  the  bookselling  business,  he 
was  unsuccessful;  and  this,  together  with  a  di- 
minished sale  of  his  poems  and  his  liberal  charity 
to  his  relatives,  who  were  numerous  and  all  poor, 
reduced  him  almost  to  poverty.  Mr.  Rogers  ex- 
erted himself  to  obtain  a  pension  for  his  way-worn 
and  sad-hearted  brother  poet,  and  Mr.  Southey 
also  manifested  a  deep  interest  in  his  welfare.  Ill 
health  was  added  to  the  sorrows  of  poverty,  and  a 
continual  headache  and  great  nervous  irritability 
sometimes  threatened  to  deprive  him  of  reason. 
From  this  he  wras  perhaps  saved  only  by  his  de- 
cease. He  removed  to  the  country,  and  died  at 
Shefford,  in  Bedfordshire,  August  19, 1823,  in  the 
fifty-seventh  year  of  his  age.  During  his  life  he 
never  deserted  the  muses.  He  published  several 
short  pieces  in  the  Monthly  Mirror ;  a  collection 
of  rural  tales ;  and  several  volumes  of  poems. 
One  of  his  productions,  u  May-day  with  the 
Muses,"  published  in  the  year  of  his  death, 
"  opens  with  a  fine  burst  of  poetical  though  mel- 
ancholy feeling." 

"  Oh  for  the  strength  to  paint  mv  joy  once  more ! 
That  joy  I  feel  when  winter's  reign  is  o'er ; 
When  the  dark  despot  lifts  his  hoary  brow, 
And  seeks  his  polar  realm's  eternal  snow ; 
Though  bleak  November's  fogs  oppress  my  brain, 
Shake  every  nerve,  and  struggling  fancy  chain  5 
Though  time  creeps  o'er  me  with  his  palsied  hand, 
And  frost-like  bids  the  stream  of  passion  stand." 

These  later  works  of  his  are  of  various  degrees 
of  merit.    We  will  quote  two  of  his  shorter  pieces, 


262 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


"  The  Soldier's  Home,"  and  some  lines  "  To  his 
Wife,"  as  happily  exhibiting  some  of  the  sweetest 
characteristics  of  his  poetry.  Of  the  first,  Pro- 
fessor Wilson  remarks,  tk  The  topic  is  trite,  but  in 
Mr.  Bloomfield's  hands  it  almost  assumes  a  char- 
acter of  novelty.  Burns's  1  Soldier's  Return  '  is 
not,  to  our  taste,  one  whit  superior." 

THE  SOLDIER'S  HOME. 

"  My  untried  muse  shall  no  high  tone  assume, 
Nor  strut  in  arms  — farewell  my  cap  and  plume  ! 
Brief  be  my  verse,  a  task  within  my  power, 
I  tell  my  feelings  in  one  happy  hour. 
But  what  an  hour  was  that  ?  when  from  the  main 
I  reached  this  lovely  valley  once  again ! 
A  glorious  harvest  filled  my  eager  sight, 
Half  shocked,  half  waving  in  a  flood  of  light; 
On  that  poor  cottage  roof  where  I  was  born, 
The  sun  looked  down  as  in  life's  early  morn. 
I  gazed  around,  but  not  a  soul  appeared ; 
I  listened  on  the  threshold,  nothing  heard ; 
I  called  my  father  thrice,  but  no  one  came ; 
It  was  not  fear  or  grief  that  shook  my  frame, 
But  an  o'erpowering  sense  of  peace  and  home, 
Of  toils  gone  by,  perhaps  of  joys  to  come. 
The  door  invitingly  stood  open  wide ; 
I  shook  my  dust,  and  set  my  staff  aside. 
How  sweet  it  was  to  breathe  that  cooler  air, 
And  take  possession  of  my  father's  chair  ! 
Beneath  my  elbow,  on  the  solid  frame, 
Appeared  the  rough  initials  of  my  name, 
Cut  forty  years  before  !    The  same  old  clock 
Struck  the  same  bell,  and  gave  my  heart  a  shock 
I  never  can  forget.    A  short  breeze  sprung, 
And  while  a  sigh  was  trembling  on  my  tongue, 
Caught  the  old  dangling  almanacs  behind. 
And  up  they  flew  like  banners  in  the  wind ; 
Then  gently,  singly,  down,  down,  down  they  went, 
And  told  of  twenty  years  that  I  had  spent 
Far  from  my  native  land.    That  instant  came 
A  robin  on  the  threshold  ;  though  so  tame, 


Sfr) 


ROBERT  BLOOM.FI ELD. 


263 


At  first  he  looked  distrustful,  almost  shy, 

And  cast  on  me  his  coal-black,  steadfast  eye, 

And  seemed  to  say  (past  friendship  to  renew), 

'  Ah  ha  !  old  worn-out  soldier,  is  it  you  ? ' 

Through  the  room  ranged  the  imprisoned  humble  bee, 

And  bombed,  and  bounced,  and  struggled  to  be  tree ; 

Dashing  against  the  panes  with  sullen  roar. 

That  threw  their  diamond  sunlight  on  the  floor; 

That  floor,  clean-sanded,  where  my  fancy  strayed 

O'er  undulating  waves  the  broom  had  made  ; 

Eeminding  me  of  those  of  hideous  forms 

That  met  us  as  we  passed  the  Cape  of  storms, 

"Where  high  and  loud  they  break  and  peace  comes  never ; 

They  roll  and  foam,  and  roll  and  foam  for  ever. 

But  here  was  peace,  that  peace  which  home  can  yield : 
The  grasshopper,  the  partridge  in  the  field, 
And  ticking  clock,  were  all  at  once  become 
The  substitute  for  clarion,  fife,  and  drum. 
While  thus  I  mused,  still  gazing,  gazing  still, 
On  beds  of  moss  that  spread  the  window  sill, 

Feelings  on  feelings,  mingling,  doubling  rose ; 
My  heart  felt  every  thing  but  calm  repose: 
I  could  not  reckon  minutes,  hours,  nor  years, 
But  rose  at  once  and  bursted  into  tears ; 
Then,  like  a  fool,  confused,  sat  down  again, 
And  thought  upon  the  past  with  shame  and  pain ; 
I  raved  at  war  and  all  its  horrid  cost, 
And  glory's  quagmire,  where  the  brave  are  lost. 
On  carnage,  fire,  and  plunder,  long  I  mused, 
And  cursed  the  murdering  weapons  I  had  used. 

^      .*^"  ^       ^       *^  ■¥£ 

But  why  thus  spin  my  tale  —  thus  tedious  be  ? 
Happy  old  soldier !  what's  the  world  to  me ! " 

The  lines  to  "his  wife,"  are  full  of  delicate 
affection,  full  too  of  his  narrow  observation  of  na- 
ture and  of  genial  sympathy  with  all  things. 
They  give  us  a  delightful  picture  of  the  heart  of 
him  who  wrote  them. 


264 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 


TO  UIS  "WIFE. 

"  I  rise,  dear  Mary,  from  the  soundest  rest, 
A  wandering,  way-worn,  musing,  singing  guest. 
I  claim  the  privilege  of  hill  and  plain : 
Mine  are  the  woods,  and  all  that  they  contain; 
The  unpolluted  gale,  which  sweeps  the  glade ; 
All  the  cool  blessings  of  the  solemn  shade ; 
Health,  and  the  flow  of  happiness  sincere.  • 
Yet  there's  one  wish  —  I  wish  that  thou  wert  here : 
Free  from  the  trammels  of  domestic  care, 
With  me  these  dear  autumnal  sweets  to  share ; 
To  share  my  heart's  ungovernable  joy, 
And  keep  the  birth-day  of  our  poor  lame  boy. 
Ah !  that's  a  tender  string !    Yet  since  I  find 
That  scenes  like  these  can  soothe  the  harassed  mind, 
Trust  me,  'twould  set  thy  jaded  spirits  free, 
To  wander  thus  through  vales  and  woods  with  me. 
Thou  know'st  how  much  I  love  to  steal  away 
From  noise,  from  uproar,  and  the  blaze  of  day ; 
With  double  transport  would  my  heart  rebound 
To  lead  thee  where  the  clustering  nuts  are  found: 
No  toilsome  efforts  would  our  task  demand, 
For  the  brown  treasure  stoops  to  meet  the  hand. 
Round  the  tall  hazel,  beds  of  moss  appear 
In  green  swards  nibbled  by  the  forest  deer  ; 
Sun,  and  alternate  shade  ;  while  o'er  our  heads 
The  cawing  rook  his  glossy  pinions  spreads ; 
The  noisy  jay,  his  wild  woods  dashing  through; 
The  ring-dove's  chorus,  and  the  rustling  bough; 
The  far-resounding  gate  ;  the  kite's  shrill  scream; 
The  distant  ploughman's  halloo  to  his  team. 
This  is  the  chorus  to  my  soul  so  dear; 
It  would  delight  thee  too,  wert  thou  but  here ; 
For  we  might  talk  of  home,  and  muse  o'er  days 
Of  sad  distress,  and  Heaven's  mysterious  ways : 
Our  chequered  fortunes  with  a  smile  retrace, 
And  build  new  hopes  upon  our  infant  race ; 
Pour  our  thanksgivings  forth,  and  weep  the  while ; 
Or  pray  for  blessings  on  our  native  isle. 
But  vain  the  wish  !    Mary,  thy  sighs  forbear, 
Nor  grudge  the  pleasure  which  thou  canst  not  share : 
Make  home  delightful,  kindly  wish  for  me, 
And  I'll  leave  hills,  and  dales,  and  woods  for  thee.n 


ST3 

ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD.  265 

As  these  extracts  sufficiently  indicate,  the  poet 
was  of  an  affectionate  and  amiable  character. 
His  genius  did  not  get  the  better  of  his  modesty, 
nor  destroy  his  attachment  for  his  humble  but 
faithful  friends.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that 
those  excellent  and  affectionate  relations,  his 
mother  and  brother,  both  lived  to  witness  the 
prosperity  of  him  who  had  been  to  each,  in  other 
days,  the  object  of  so  much  anxious  care.  It  was 
the  dearest  of  the  poet's  gratifications,  when  his 
book  was  printed,  to  present  a  copy  of  it  to  his 
mother,  to  whom  upon  that  occasion,  he  had  it  in 
his  power,  for  the  first  time,  to  pay  a  visit,  after 
twelve  years'  absence  from  his  native  village. 
From  a  tribute  to  his  memory,  by  a  brother  poet, 
Bernard  Barton,  we  quote  a  single  verse  as  a 
conclusion  to  this  imperfect  sketch. 

"  It  is  not  quaint  and  local  terms 

Besprinkled  o'er  thy  rustic  lay, 
Though  well  such  dialect  confirms, 

Its  power  unlettered  minds  to  sway; 
But  'tis  not  these  that  most  display 

Thy  sweetest  charms,  thy  gentlest  thrall,— 
Words,  phrases,  fashion,  pass  away, 

But  Truth  and  Nature  live  through  all." 


twnr  2t$r 


ISAAC  MILNER. 

This  distinguished  mathematician,  and  exem- 
plary divine,  was  born  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Leeds,  England,  in  the  year  1751.  His  father 
was  a  man  of  strong  understanding,  who,  having 
felt,  in  his  own  case,  the  want  of  a  good  educa- 
tion, formed  an  early  resolution  to  remedy  that 
defect  in  his  children,  as  far  as  in  him  lay.  Ac- 
cordingly, Isaac,  the  youngest,  was  sent,  at  six 
years  of  age,  with  his  brother  Joseph,  to  the 
grammar-school  of  his  native  town,  where  he 
made  a  very  rapid  progress  in  classical  learning. 
Just  as  he  was  entering  upon  the  study  of  the 
Greek  language,  however,  in  his  tenth  year,  the 
death  of  his  father,  who  had  been  unfortunate  in 
business,  and  had  suffered  materially  in  his  cir- 
cumstances from  the  incidents  of  the  rebellion  of 
1745,  blighted  all  his  prospects  of  a  literary  edu- 
cation ;  his  mother  being  under  the  painful 
necessity  of  taking  him  from  school,  and  placing 
him  in  a  situation  in  Leeds,  in  which  he  would  have 
an  opportunity  of  learning  several  branches  of  the 
woollen  manufacture.  His  father  had  been  a 
master-weaver  ;  and  when  he  fell  into  difficulties, 
his  sons,  lads  as  they  were,  rose  up  early  and  sat 
up  late,  to  contribute,  by  the  produce  of  their 
spinning-wheels,  to  the  support  of  the  family, 
which  was  placed  in  such  straitened  circum- 
stances, that,  Joseph  requiring  a  Greek  book, 
while  at  school,  to  enable  him  to  pass  into  a  higher 
class,  his  father  sent  it  home,  one  Saturday  night, 


Sir 

ISAAC  MILNE R.  267 


instead  of  a  joint  of  meat  for  their  Sunday's  din- 
ner, not  having  the  means  of  procuring  both. 
When  his  death  deprived  his  wife  and  children 
of  the  material  advantage  of  his  assistance,  Joseph, 
during  the  intervals  of  school,  and  Isaac,  before 
he  went  to  his  work  as  an  apprentice,  and  after 
he  came  home  from  it,  rising  in  winter  many 
hours  before  day-break,  and  working  by  candle- 
light, plied  the  shuttle  incessantly,  for  the  better 
support  of  their  mother,  left  in  an  ill  state  of 
health,  to  get  a  scanty  living  by  the  labor  of  her 
hands.  Isaac  remained  with  his  master  for  sev- 
eral years,  until  his  brother  Joseph  (who  from 
the  humble  station  of  chapel  clerk  of  Catharine 
Hall,  Cambridge  —  in  which  capacity,  supported 
by  several  admirers  of  his  extraordinary  learning 
in  Leeds,  he  entered  that  university  soon  after  the 
death  of  his  father  —  had  become  head-master  of 
the  grammar  school,  and  afterwards  lecturer  of 
the  principal  church  in  Hull),  from  an  income  of 
£200  a  year,  generously  resolved  to  take  upon 
himself  the  charge  of  his  education  for  the  church. 
Before,  however,  he  had  him  removed  to  Hull,  he 
commissioned  a  clergyman  at  Leeds  to  ascertain 
what  were  his  attainments.  The  degree  of  knowl- 
edge which  he  had  acquired,  the  accuracy  of  his 
ideas,  and  the  astonishing  command  of  language 
which  he  possessed,  fully  satisfied  him  of  the  com- 
petency of  the  lad  for  the  situation  in  which  it 
was  intended  to  place  him.  A  few  days  after,  at 
the  age  of  seventeen,  he  left  Leeds  and  the  occu- 
pation of  a  weaver,  for  his  brother's  dwelling  and 
the  more  congenial  pursuits  of  a  literary  life. 
Though  still  but  a  boy,  he  was  found  to  have  been 
so  well  grounded  in  the  classics  by  Moore,  the 


268 


ISAAC  MILNEIi. 


usher  of  the  grammar-school  at  Leeds,  as  to  be 
able  to  render  material  assistance  to  his  brother, 
in  teaching  the  lower  boys  of  his  crowded  classes. 
Whilst  not  thus  engaged,  he  pursued  his  own 
studies  with  his  wonted  diligence,  and  soon  be- 
came a  complete  and  accomplished  classic.  In 
mathematics,  also,  his  attainments  must  also  at 
this  time  have  been  considerable,  as  his  brother, 
whose  preeminence  as  a  scholar  lay  not  in  these 
pursuits,  on  the  occurrence  of  any  algebraical  dif- 
ficulty, was  in  the  habit  of  sending  to  him  for  its 
solution.  Having  thus  redoubled  his  diligence, 
to  make  up  for  the  time  he  had  lost,  —  well  pre- 
pared by  a  most  laborious  and  successful,  if  not  a 
long  course  of  study,  aided  by  natural  talents  of 
unusual  depth  and  splendor,  to  make  a  conspicuous 
figure  at  the  university, —  he  was  entered  a  sizar 
(an  indigent  student  supported  by  benefactions 
called  exhibitions)  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge, 
in  the  year  1770,  where  he  greatly  distinguished 
himself  by  his  learning  and  application.  He  took 
his  bachelor's  degree  in  1774,  when  he  attained 
the  high  honor  of  being  at  once  the  senior  wran- 
gler of  his  year  and  the  first  Smith's  prize  man. 
So  strongly,  indeed,  was  his  superiority  over  all 
his  competitors  marked  on  this  occasion,  that, 
contrary  to  the  usual  practice,  it  was  deemed 
right,  by  the  examiners,  to  interpose  a  blank 
space  between  them ;  and  he  was  honored  with  the 
designation  of  Incomparabilis,  a  distinction'  which 
has  never  been  conferred  but  in  one  other  in- 
stance. Nor  was  his  learning  confined  to  math- 
ematics, for  he  was  not  less  eminent  in  other 
walks  of  science  and  literature.  In  theology,  we 
learn  from  Bishop  Watson,  that  he  was  so  deeply 


ISAAC  MILNER. 


269 


read,  that,  when  he  kept  his  act,  the  divinity  school 
was  thronged  with  auditors;  and  their  curiosity 
was  amply  gratified  by  listening  to  what  the  pre- 
late terms  a  "real  academical  entertainment." 
The  circumstance  of  these  disputations  being  held 
in  Latin,  proves  also  that  Milner  must  have  made 
great  progress  in  classical  knowledge. 

In  the  following  year,  Mr.  Milner  was  elected 
a  fellow  of  his  college.  In  1783  and  in  1785,  he 
acted  as  moderator  in  the  schools  ;  was  nominated, 
in  1782,  one  of  the  proctors,  and  in  1783,  a  taxor 
of  the  university.  In  the  latter  year,  also,  he 
was  chosen  to  be  the  first  Jacksonian  professor 
of  natural  and  experimental  philosophy  and  chem- 
istry, in  which  sciences  he  had  previously  given 
several  courses  of  public  lectures  in  the  university, 
with  great  acceptance. 

The  acquaintance  of  Milner  with  Mr.  Wilber- 
force,  and  the  influence  he  exerted  upon  that  dis- 
tinguished philanthropist,  are  among  the  most 
interesting  circumstances  of  his  life.  When  a  boy, 
Wilberforce  attended  the  school  of  the  Milners,  at 
Hull.  This  was  the  commencement  of  their  ac- 
quaintance ;  and  wnen,  some  years  afterwards, 
Mr.  Wilberforce  was  seeking  a  companion  for  a 
tour  upon  the  continent,  he  proposed  to  Mr.  Mil- 
ner to  accompany  him.  Accordingly,  on  the 
20th  of  October,  1784,  they  started;  Milner  and 
Wilberforce  in  one  carriage,  and  the  mother,  sis- 
ter, and  two  cousins  of  the  latter  following  them 
in  another.  They  crossed  France  to  Lyons, 
dropped  down  the  "  arrowy  Rhone,"  and  made 
quite  a  long  stay  at  Nice.  Mr.  Wilberforce  had 
chosen  his  companion  for  vivacity  and  sterling 
good  sense,  for  his  talents  and  great  acquire- 
/fy&trrtfc.   23* 


270 


ISAAC  MILNER. 


ments,  "  his  cheerfulness,  good -nature,  and  powers 
of  social  entertainment/'*  But  there  were  other 
qualities  in  this  man,  of  which  the  young  and  gay 
traveller  was  not  aware,  but  which,  under  the  di- 
rection of  an  over-watching  Providence,  were 
made  productive  of  most  important  results.  Mr. 
"Wilberforce  himself  says  of  him,  "  Though  Mil- 
ner's  religious  principles  were  even  now,  in  theory, 
much  the  same  as  in  later  life,  yet  they  had  at 
this  time  little  practical  effect  upon  his  conduct. 
He  was  free  from  every  taint  of  vice,  but  not 
more  attentive  than  others  to  religion ;  he  ap- 
peared in  all  respects  like  an  ordinary  man  of  the 
world,  mixing  like  myself  in  all  companies,  and 
joining  as  readily  as  others  in  the  prevalent  Sun- 
day parties.  Indeed,  when  I  engaged  him  as  a. 
companion  in  my  tour,  I  knew  not  that  he  had 
any  deeper  principles.  The  first  time  I  discovered 
it,  was  at  the  public  table  at  Scarborough.  The 
conversation  turned  on  Mr.  Stillingfleet ;  and  I 
spoke  of  him  as  a  good  man,  but  one  who  carried 
things  too  far.  —  "  Not  a  bit  too  far,"  said  Milner  ; 
and  to  this  opinion  he  adhered,  when  we  renewed 
the  conversation  in  the  evening  on  the  Sands. 
This  declaration  greatly  surprised  me ;  and  it  was 
agreed  that  at  some  future  time  we  would  talk  the 
matter  over.  Had  I  known  at  first  what  his 
opinions  were,  it  would  have  decided  me  against 

*  In  all  the  scenes  of  gayety  upon  the  continent,  "Wilber- 
force  M  was  constantly  accompanied  by  Milner,  whose 
vivacity  and  sense,  joined  with  rustic  and  unpolished  man- 
ners, continually  amused  his  friends.  —  "Pretty  boy! 
pretty  boy  ! ;'  uttered  in  the  broadest  Yorkshire  dialect, 
whilst  he  stroked  familiarly  his  head,  was  the  mode  in 
which  he  first  addressed  the  young  Prince  William  of 
Gloucester."  —  Life  of  Wilherforce. 


ISA  A.C  MILNER. 


271 


making  the  offer ;  so  true  it  is  that  a  gracious 
hand  leads  us  in  ways  that  we  know  not,  and 
blesses  us  not  only  without,  but  even  against,  our 
plans  and  inclinations."  Wilberfbrce  was  at  this 
time  among  the  gayest  of  the  gay,  and  was  quite 
ready  to  turn  his  raillery  against  all  seriousness 
in  religion,  as  extravagant  and  methodistical ;  but 
Milner  met  his  jocose  attack  with  earnestness. 
u  I  am  no  match  for  you,  Wilberfbrce,"  he  would 
say  to  him,  "  in  this  running  fire  ;  but,  if  you  really 
wish  to  discuss  these  subjects  seriously,  I  will 
gladly  enter  on  them  with  you." 

Another  small  circumstance  shows  the  turn  of 
Milner's  mind.  By  chance,  a  short  time  before 
they  started  on  their  tour,  Wilberforce  took  up 
"  Doddridge's  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion," 
and,  casting  his  eye  over  it,  asked  his  companion 
what  the  character  of  it  was.  "  It  is  one  of  the 
best  books  ever  written,"  was  the  reply:  "let  us 
take  it  with  us,  and  read  it  on  our  journey."  The 
result  was  that  it  was  taken  and  read,  and  Wil- 
berforce determined  at  some  future  time  to  exam- 
ine the  scriptures  for  himself,  and  find  out  the 
truth  of  what  the  little  volume  stated. 

The  two  travellers  were  called  home  from  their 
journey  rather  unexpectedly,  by  the  political  con- 
dition of  England.  Leaving  the  ladies  of  the 
party  at  Nice,  they  made  their  wray  through 
Antibes,  across  France,  with  all  haste.  Once  on 
their  return,  Wilberforce  seems  to  have  been  in 
great  danger,  from  which  his  friend  but  just  saved 
him.  "  As  they  climbed  a  frozen  road  upon  the 
hills  of  Burgundy,  the  weight  of  their  carriage 
overpowered  the  horses ;  and  it  was  just  running 
over  a  frightful  precipice,  when  Milner,  who  was 

rc 


0 

272 


ISAAC  MILNER. 


walking  behind,  perceived  the  danger,  and,  by  a 
sudden  effort  of  his  great  strength  of  muscle,  ar- 
rested its  descent."  After  the  close  of  the  session 
of  Parliament,  which  took  place  about  the  end  of 
June,  the  two  friends  started  again,  and  met  their 
former  companions  at  Genoa.  From  this  place 
they  travelled  together  as  before  to  Switzerland 
by  way  of  Turin.  During  this  journey,  they  be- 
gan, according  to  Milner's  suggestion,  to  read  the 
Greek  Testament  together,  and  carefully  to  exam- 
ine its  doctrines,  and  discuss  its  principles. 

The  result  is  known  to  all  who  know  any  thing 
of  the  later  life  of  Wilberforce.  "  By  degrees," 
he  says  of  his  companion,  "  I  imbibed  his  senti- 
ments, though  I  must  confess  with  shame,  that 
they  long  remained  merely  as  opinions  assented 
to  by  my  understanding,  but  not  influencing  my 
heart.  My  interest  in  them  certainly  increased, 
and  at  length  I  began  to  be  impressed  with  a 
sense  of  their  importance.  Milner,  though  full  of 
levity  on  all  other  subjects,  never  spoke  on  this 
but  with  the  utmost  seriousness,  and  all  he  said 
tended  to  increase  my  attention  to  religion."  The 
friendship,  thus  cemented,  continued  without  an 
interruption  until  the  death  of  Milner,  thirty-seven 
years  afterwards. 

In  the  year  1788,  Mr.  Milner  was  elected  pres- 
ident of  the  college,  to  which,  as  a  student,  he  had 
been  so  bright  an  ornament,  and,  about  the  same 
time,  took  his  degree  of  doctor  in  divinity. 

For  some  years  previously,  the  college,  which 
had  been  the  asylum  of  Erasmus,  was  rapidly  de- 
clining in  its  reputation  for  learning  and  disci- 
pline ;  but,  from  the  moment  of  his  assuming  the 
reins  of  its  government,  he  labored  indefatigably 


ISAAC  MILNER. 


273 


and  successfully  to  restore  its  ancient  character 
for  both.  He  introduced  into  its  fellowships  men 
eminent  for  their  talents  at  other  colleges.  It 
specially  became  celebrated,  during  his  presidency, 
for  the  number  of  pious  young  men  who  studied 
there  for  the  Christian  ministry,  and  who  are  now 
some  of  the  most  popular  and  zealous  clergymen 
of  the  establishment.  Dr.  Milner  aided  the  cause 
of  learning,  in  no  slight  degree,  by  giving  a  strong 
impulse  to  the  study  of  mathematics  and  the  va- 
rious branches  of  experimental  philosophy.  In 
1791,  he  was  raised  to  the  deanery  of  Carlisle. 

In  1798,  he  was  placed  in  the  chair  of  the 
Lucasian  professor  of  mathematics,  a  situation 
worth  about  £350  a  year,  which  had  been  suc- 
cessively filled  by  Isaac  Barrow,  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton, Whiston,  Saunderson,  Colson,  and  Waring, 
the  most  eminent  mathematicians  of  their  day. 
He  twice  served  the  office  of  vice-chancellor  of 
the  university.  As  an  author,  he  is  advanta- 
geously known  by  the  life  of  his  brother  Joseph  ; 
by  strictures  on  some  of  the  publications  of  Dr. 
Herbert  Marsh  —  a  most  masterly  defence  of  the 
Bible  Society ;  by  a  continuation  of  the  Church 
History  begun  by  his  brother;  and  by  papers 
contributed  to  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety, of  which  he  was  a  fellow. 

He  died  at  the  house  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Wilber- 
force,  in  London,  on  the  1st  of  April,  1820,  in 
the  seventieth  year  of  his  age.  He  left  the  world 
in  humble  hope  of  eternal  life,  through  the  media- 
tion and  merits  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  In  intellectual  endowment,"  says  his  biogra- 
pher (supposed  to  be  Mr.  Wilberforce),  "Isaac 
Milner  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  first  men 


274 


ISAAC  MILNER. 


of  his  day.  lie  possessed  prodigious  powers  of  un- 
derstanding. As  a  mathematician,  he  was  one  of 
the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  of  his  age.  He  had 
also  a  great  partiality  for  mechanics  ;  and  spend- 
ing most  of  his  leisure,  during  the  lifetime  of  his 
brother,  at  Hull,  his  lodgings  there  were  a  com- 
plete workshop,  filled  with  all  kinds  of  carpenter's 
and  turner's  tools.  There  he  was  accustomed  dai- 
ly to  relax  his  mind  from  the  fatigues  of  study 
by  some  manual  labor  ;  and  so  much  was  he  inter- 
ested in  these  pursuits,  that  his  lathe  and  appen- 
dages for  turning  were  not  only  extremely  curious, 
but  very  expensive,  having  cost  him  no  less  a 
sum  than  one  hundred  and  forty  guineas.  He 
had  also  a  very  ingenious  machine,  partly  of  his 
own  invention,  which  formed  and  polished  at  the 
same  time,  watch  wheels  of  every  description, 
with  the  utmost  possible  exactness." 

Humility  was  a  very  striking  feature  in  his 
character.  Never,  at  any  period  of  his  life,  was 
he  ashamed  of  his  former  lowly  station  ;  and  after 
he  had  become  the  head  of  a  college,  a  dignified 
member  of  the  clerical  order,  and  had  proved 
himself  one  of  the  first  scholars  in  the  country, 
whenever  he  passed  through  Leeds,  as  he  gener- 
ally did  on  his  journeys  to  the  North,  he  never 
failed  to  visit  the  obscure  friends  of  his  boyish 
days ;  and,  by  his  well-timed  acts  of  generosity 
towards  them,  often  did  he  "  deliver  the  poor  and 
fatherless,  and  cause  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for 
joy."  Isaac  Milner,  the  poor  fatherless  weaver, 
and  the  very  reverend  Isaac  Milner,  president  of 
Queen's  College,  Lucasian  professor  of  mathemat- 
ics, and  dean  of  Carlisle,  rich  in  this  world's 


ISAAC  MILNER. 


275 


goods,*  as  well  as  in  literary  fame,  never  wore 
even  the  semblance  of  two  different  men. 
Through  life,  he  manifested  in  his  deportment 
the  unaffected  simplicity  of  manners  and  affability 
of  disposition  appropriate  to  his  early  station  in 
society,  but  not  less  adorning  the  high  sphere  in 
which,  by  the  providence  of  God,  he  afterwards 
was  called  to  move. 


*  Notwithstanding  his  great  liberality,  he  accumulated 
from  the  savings  of  his  preferment  a  fortune  of  from  fifty 
to  sixty  thousand  pounds. 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


There  is  a  sense  in  which  every  educated  man 
may  be  said  to  be  self-taught.  All  the  aids  which 
he  receives  from  instructors,  from  libraries,  and 
the  whole  apparatus  of  universities,  will  avail 
him  little,  without  constant  and  diligent  personal 
efforts.  No  man  has  made  great  attainments,  but 
by  severe  toil.  We  introduce  the  name  of  Sir 
William  Jones,  not  because  he  belongs  to  that 
meritorious  class  of  persons,  who,  almost  without 
means,  have  conquered  great  difficulties ;  but  be- 
cause he  used  the  means  which  a  liberal  fortune 
bestowed,  with  so  much  assiduity,  that,  although 
dying  at  an  early  age,  his  name  has  ever  since 
remained  as  one  of  the  watchwords  of  scholars. 

Sir  William  Jones  was  born  in  London,  in 
the  year  1746.  His  father  was  distinguished  as 
a  mathematical  scholar,  and  was  on  terms  of  close 
friendship  with  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
scientific  and  literary  men  of  England  ;  among 
whom  were  Lord  Hardwicke  (afterward  Lord 
Chancellor),  Halley,  Mead,  and  especially  Sir 
Isaac  Newton.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of 
a  celebrated  cabinet  maker,  who  had  risen  to 
great  eminence  in  his  profession,  and,  by  the 
agreeableness  of  his  manners  and  his  good  sense, 
had  become  an  acceptable  companion  of  highly- 
educated  gentlemen.  When  William  was  but 
three  years  old,  his  father  died,  and  the  care  of 
his  education  devolved  upon  his  mother.  Being  a 
woman  of  strong  mind,  she  determined  to  devote 

0 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


277 


herself  to  this  object  as  her  first  duty.  Accordingly, 
although  invited  by  the  Countess  of  Macclesfield 
to  remain  with  her  at  her  residence  at  Sherborne 
Castle,  she  declined  the  solicitation,  lest  it  should 
interfere  with  the  plans  she  had  formed  for  her 
son.  The  boy  early  showed  an  inquisitiveness 
uncommon  among  children ;  and  to  his  application 
for  instruction,  his  mother  always  replied,  Read, 
and  you  will  know.  To  this  maxim  the  great 
scholar,  in  after  life,  acknowledged  that  he  was 
mainly  indebted  for  his  attainments. 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  schools  in  England 
is  that  at  Harrow,  a  village  about  ten  miles  north- 
west of  London.  It  was  founded  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  and  has  educated  its  proportion  of  the 
distinguished  scholars  and  statesmen  of  England. 
To  this  school  William  Jones  was  sent  in  1753, 
at  about  the  beginning  of  his  eighth  year.  His 
mother  accompanied  him  to  the  place,  and  re- 
mained there  in  order  to  render  him  such  assist- 
ance, and  give  such  a  direction  to  his  mind,  as  she 
thought  would  be  for  his  good.  For  two  years, 
he  was  distinguished  more  for  diligence  than  pre- 
cocity, and  divided  his  attention  between  his  books 
and  a  little  garden  which  he  cultivated  and  em- 
bellished. He  was  so  unfortunate,  in  his  ninth 
year,  as  to  break  his  thigh  bone  ;  by  which  acci- 
dent he  was  detained  from  school  for  a  year. 
Though  his  classical  studies  were  intermitted 
during  this  period,  yet  his  mother  directed  his 
attention  to  many  of  the  best  English  writers, 
whose  works  were  suited  to  his  age  and  tastes. 
Some  of  the  poems  of  Pope  and  Dryden  afforded 
him  great  delight.  On  returning  to  school  again, 
he  was  put  into  the  same  class  which  he  had  left ; 

vol.  n.  2fc  


278 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


and  their  increased  attainments,  during  his  year 
of  vacation,  made  him  appear  the  more  defective. 
The  master,  who  mistook  his  necessary  failure  for 
the  effect  of  dullness  or  laziness,  threatened  and 
punished,  but  without  producing  the  wished-for 
result.  It  was  a  question,  whether  the  boy  would 
not  be  discouraged  by  harsh  treatment,  and  his 
feelings  become  callous  and  indifferent ;  but  his 
spirit  rose  above  the  little  adversities  of  his  situa- 
tion. Of  his  own  accord,  he  began  to  study  the 
elementary  treatises,  which  taught  him  the  prin- 
ciples that  his  class  had  learnt  while  he  was  sick. 
In  a  few  months,  it  became  evident  that  the  back- 
ward boy  was  neither  lazy  nor  dull.  He  recov- 
ered his  standing ;  took  the  head  of  his  class  ;  in 
every  instance  gained  the  prize  offered  for  any 
exercise  ;  and  carried  his  studies  much  beyond 
wrhat  had  ever  been  required  of  the,  scholars  in 
his  form. 

In  his  twelfth  year,  he  entered  the  upper  school, 
and  soon  had  occasion  to  give  an  example  of  the 
remarkable  powers  of  his  memory.  His  school- 
fellows, for  their  amusement,  were  endeavoring  to 
represent  a  play,  and,  at  his  suggestion,  had  fixed 
on  the  Tempest.  Of  this,  however,  they  had  no 
copy,  neither  could  one  be  easily  procured.  To 
supply  the  deficiency,  young  Jones  wrote  it  out 
from  memory,  with  sufficient  correctness  to  en- 
able them  to  act  it  with  great  satisfaction  to  them- 
selves. About  the  same  time,  he  began  the  study 
of  Greek,  and  prosecuted  his  Latin  with  more 
zeal  than  ever.  He  conquered  many  of  the  diffi- 
culties of  Latin  prosody,  before  his  teacher  and 
schoolmates  were  aware  that  he  had  thought  of 
the  subject.    The  pastorals  of  Virgil,  and  several 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


279 


of  the  epistles  of  Ovid,  he  translated  into  English 
verse ;  and  it  was  not  uncommon  for  boys  of  the 
superior  classes  to  come  to  him  for  assistance  in 
writing  their  exercises.  The  holidays  he  usually 
devoted  to  study.  On  one  occasion,  he  invented 
a  play,  which  snowed  the  tendency  of  his  mind. 
His  principal  assistants  were  Dr.  Bennett  (the 
future  Bishop  of  Cloyne)  and  Dr.  Parr.  The 
fields  of  Harrow  they  divided  into  states  and 
kingdoms,  according  to  the  map  of  Greece,  each 
assuming  one  as  his  dominion,  and  with  it  taking 
an  ancient  name.  The  hillocks  were  fortresses, 
which  were  attacked  by  others  of  their  school- 
fellows, who  consented  to  be  called  barbarians ; 
and  the  mimic  wars  which  followed,  gave  rise  to 
councils,  harangues,  embassies,  and  memorials, 
and  whatever  other  operations  of  states  and  gov- 
ernments their  young  heads  could  learn  about. 
In  these  operations,  Jones  was  the  leader.* 

*  It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  opinions  which  his  school- 
fellows and  his  principal  instructor  had  of  him  at  this  early 
age.  The  Bishop  of  Cloyne  wrote  many  years  afterward  : 
t;  I  knew  him  from  the  early  age  of  eight  or  nine,  and  he 
was  always  an  uncommon  hoy.  Great  abilities,  great  par- 
ticularity of  thinking,  fondness  for  writing  verses  and 
plays  of  various  kinds,  and  a  degree  of  integrity  and  manly 
courage,  of  which  I  remember  many  instances,  distin- 
guished him  even  at  that  period.  I  loved  him  and  revered 
him,  and,  though  one  or  two  years  older  than  he  was,  was 
always  instructed  by  him  from  my  earliest  age.  In  a 
word,  I  can  only  say  of  this  amiable  and  wonderful  man, 
that  he  had  more  virtues  and  less  faults  than  I  ever  yet 
saw  in  any  human  being;  and  that  the  goodness  of  his 
head,  admirable  as  it  was,  was  exceeded  by  that  of  his 
heart."  Dr.  Thackeray,  the  head  master  of  Harrow,  used 
to  say,  that  Jones  "  was  a  boy  of  so  active  a  mind,  that,  if 
he  were  left  naked  and  friendless  on  Salisbury  plain,  he 
would  nevertheless  find  the  road  to  fame  and  riches." 


SIR  "WILLIAM  JONES. 


When  Jones  was  fifteen  years  old,  Dr.  Sumner 
succeeded  Dr.  Thackeray;  and,  under  his  super- 
vision, the  young  scholar  devoted  the  next  two 
years  of  his  life  to  the  diligent  study  of  the  best 
ancient  authors.  He  did  not,  however,  confine 
himself  to  these.  During  his  vacations,  he  found 
time  to  perfect  himself  in  French,  to  study  Italian 
and  arithmetic.  He  also  learned  something  of 
Arabic,  and  enough  of  Hebrew  to  enable  him  to 
read  some  of  the  Psalms  in  the  original.  His 
inclination  to  study  at  this  period  was,  indeed,  so 
earnest,  that  at  last  it  was  thought  best  to  check 
it,  lest  he  might  injure  his  health.  His  attend- 
ance at  school  was  therefore  dispensed  with,  and 
he  was  for  a  while  forbidden  to  study. 

At  the  aije  of  seventeen,  it  was  decided  that  he 
should  go  to  one  of  the  universities.  This  deter- 
mination was  adopted  with  some  hesitation,  since 
his  mother  had  been  strongly  urged  by  some  dis- 
tinguished lawyers  to  place  him  in  the  office  of  an 
eminent  special  pleader.  He  had  already  read 
the  Abridgment  of  Coke's  Institutions,  and  his 
friends  thought  that  his  learning  and  industry 
would  insure  him  brilliant  success  at  the  bar.  To 
this  course  he  was  himself  opposed;  and  the  strong 
advice  of  Dr.  Sumner,  added  to  certain  consider- 
ations of  economy,  finally  led  to  the  wished-for 
decision.  In  the  spring  of  1764,  he  went  to  Ox- 
ford, and  entered  University  College.* 

For  the  first  few  months  of  his  residence  at 


*  The  following  form  of  his  admission  may  be  interest- 
ing to  some.  It  is  copied  from  his  own  writing.  "Ego 
Gulielmus  Jones,  films  unicus  Gulielmi  Jones,  Armigeri 
de  civitate  Lond.  lubens  subscribo  sub  tutamine  Magistri 
Betts,  et  Magistri  Coulson,  annos  natus  septemdecim." 


»  SIR  WILLIAM  .lONKS. 


2X1 


Oxford,  Mr.  Jones  was  much  disappointed  at  the 
course  of  instruction.  He  expected  assistance 
and  encouragement  which  he  did  not  receive; 
the  lectures  seemed  to  him  artificial  and  dull ; 
and  all  genial  criticism,  rhetoric,  and  poetry,  as 
good  as  dead.  This  opinion  he  afterwards  con- 
siderably modified.  A  testimony  to  his  scholar- 
ship was  soon  given,  by  his  being  elected  one  of 
the  four  scholars  on  the  foundation  of  Sir  Simon 
Bennett.  His  love  for  Oriental  literature  began 
to  revive.  He  resumed  the  Arabic,  and  was  so 
earnest  in  the  pursuit  of  it,  that,  having  acciden- 
tally found  in  London  a  native  of  Aleppo,  who 
could  speak  the  vulgar  Arabic  fluently,  he  induced 
him  to  come  to  Oxford,  in  order  that  he  might 
learn  from  him  the  pronunciation  of  the  language. 
He  hoped  to  induce  other  scholars  to  join  with 
him,  and  so  to  diminish  the  expense  ;  but  in  this 
he  failed,  and  he  was  obliged  to  maintain  the 
Arab  alone,  at  a  time  when  he  could  ill  afford  the 
additional  demand  upon  his  finances.  To  the 
Arabic  he  soon  added  the  Persian.  Nor  did  he  in 
the  mean  time  neglect  his  old  friends,  the  Greeks 
and  Latins.  The  Greek  poets  and  historians,  and 
especially  the  writings  of  Plato,  he  carefully  pe- 
rused ;  reading,  according  to  the  advice  of  many 
eminent  scholars,  with  pen  in  hand,  ready  to  note 
down  whatever  struck  him  with  greatest  force,  or 
to  follow  out  the  suggestions  which  he  derived 
from  them.  With  the  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Por- 
tuguese, he  had  become  so  familiar  as  to  be  able 
to  read  easily  their  best  authors.  Nor  did  he 
neglect  physical  education.  He  was  always  fond 
of  bodily  exercises,  and  pursued  them  syste- 
matically, both  as  invigorating  his  frame,  and  as 
mrft  -24* — 


282 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


fitting  him  the  better  to  endure  the  active  exer- 
tions to  which  he  might  be  called  in  future  life. 
Thus,  as  he  said,  "with  the  fortune  of  a  peasant, 
he  gave  himself  the  education  of  a  prince."  It 
is  evident,  that,  for  these  extraordinary  attain- 
ments, he  was  indebted  to  unwearying  diligence 
and  fidelity,  quite  as  much  as  to  natural  capacity. 

While  pursuing  these  courses  of  study  at  the 
university,  he  found  that  his  necessary  expenses 
were  making  large  demands  upon  the  limited 
income  of  his  mother,  and  he  thought  it  proper 
to  look  for  some  occupation  that  might  relieve 
her  of  the  burden.  Whether  or  not  this  was 
known  to  his  friends,  we  do  not  know ;  but  he 
soon  received  an  invitation  to  become  the  private 
tutor  of  Lord  Althorpe  (afterwards  Earl  Spen- 
cer). This  he  concluded  to  accept,  and,  in  his 
nineteenth  year,  in  the  summer  of  1765,  went  to 
Wimbledon  Park  to  undertake  the  education  of  his 
young  pupil,  at  that  time  but  seven  years  of  age. 

During  the  next  summer,  1766,  he  was  very 
unexpectedly  chosen  to  a  fellowship  at  Oxford. 
This  was  extremely  gratifying  to  him ;  since,  be- 
sides being  an  honorable  testimony  to  his  scholar- 
ship, it  gave  him  what  he  thought  an  absolute 
independence.  The  income  was  indeed  but  a 
hundred  pounds,  but  it  was  at  that  time  sufficient 
for  the  expenses  of  a  young  man  of  prudent  hab- 
its. A  residence  at  Oxford  too,  with  its  ample 
libraries  and  society  of  learned  men,  was  just 
what  he  most  desired.  Had  it  been  offered  to 
him  a  year  earlier,  it  might  have  changed  the 
whole  course  of  his  life.  As  it  was,  although  he 
accepted  the  honor,  he  still  continued  in  his  situa- 
tion as  tutor. 


6t>  J 

SIR  WILLIAM  JONES.  28JJ 

During  this  same  year,  he  received  from  the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  then  at  the  head  of  the  treas- 
ury, the  offer  of  the  post  of  Interpreter  of  Eastern 
languages,  which,  however,  he  did  not  accept. 
At  Wimbledon,  he  found  much  to  delight  him  ; 
but  that  which  seemed  to  him  of  greatest  value 
was  a  well-stored  library,  almost  every  volume 
of  which  he  read,  or  to  some  extent  examined. 
About  this  time,  he  began  his  Commentaries  on 
Asiatic  Poetry,  after  the  manner  of  Dr.  Lowth's 
Prelections  on  Hebrew  Poetry. 

It  will  not  be  practicable,  within  the  limits  of 
this  brief  sketch,  to  follow  minutely  the  course  of 
this  most  diligent  and  distinguished  young  scholar. 
"We  find  nim  the  next  year,  1767,  during  a  visit 
to  the  continent,  on  which  he  accompanied  the 
family  of  Lord  Spenser,  learning  the  German,  at 
that  time  not  considered  an  essential  part  of  a 
thorough  education.  After  his  return  home,  in 
the  same  year,  he  nearly  completed  his  Commen- 
taries, transcribed  an  Arabic  manuscript  w  hich  he 
had  borrowed,  and  began  to  learn  the  Chinese. 
Another  slight  circumstance  which  took  place 
about  the  same  time,  had  an  important  bearing  on 
his  future  pursuits.  He  happened  to  read,  from 
curiosity,  l.  very  old  work  by  Fortescue,  on  the 
laws  of  England,  in  which  the  condition  of  the 
English  is  contrasted  with  that  of  other  nations. 
The  discussion  opened  to  the  ardent  mind  of  the 
curious  scholar  a  world  of  reflections.  This  was 
a  subject  upon  which  he  had  not  thought,  but  one 
upon  which  his  knowledge  gave  him  the  opportunity 
of  collecting  materials  for  a  comprehensive  and  true 
judgment.  From  this  time  forward,  his  mind  was 
interested  in  the  great  subject  of  Jurisprudence. 


it  i* 

284 


SJR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


In  the  spring  of  the  year  1768,  he  received  a 
proposal  of  a  singular  nature,  but  one  which 
showed  how  widely  his  reputation  as  a  ripe 
scholar  extended.  The  King  of  Denmark,  then 
upon  a  visit  to  England,  had  brought  with  him  an 
Eastern  manuscript,  containing  the  life  of  Nadir 
Shah,  which  he  was  desirous  of  having  translated 
in  England.  The  Secretary  of  State  sent  the 
volume  to  Mr.  Jones,  with  a  request  that  he 
would  translate  it  into  the  French  language.  Mr. 
Jones  declined ;  but  the  application  was  renewed 
in  such  a  form,  and  with  so  much  urgency,  that 
he  was  afraid  of  being  thought  morose  or  ill- 
natured,  if  he  persisted  in  refusing.  It  would 
have  been  much  easier  for  him  to  translate  it  into 
Latin  ;  and  although  he  took  great  pains  to  acquire 
a  good  French  style,  he  thought  it  necessary  to 
submit  every  page  to  a  native  of  France.  The 
work,  difficult  as  it  was,  requiring  a  critical  knowl- 
edge of  two  languages,  one  of  which  was  then 
hardly  known  in  Europe,  was  finished  in  a  year. 
Mr.  Jones  was  not  then  twenty-four ! 

During  the  time  that  he  was  engaged  upon  this 
serious  task,  he  was  not  unmindful  of  other  things. 
For  the  same  reasons,  in  part,  which  led  him  for- 
merly to  practise  horsemanship  and  fencing,  he  now 
took  lessons  in  music.  His  idea  of  education  was, 
that  it  should  harmoniously  develope  all  the  pow- 
ers of  mind  and  body,  and  enlarge  to  the  utmost 
the  field  of  our  sympathy.  He  also  began  about 
the  same  time  to  extend  considerably  his  literary 
acquaintance.  One  of  those  with  whom  he  formed 
a  friendship  was  Count  Revicski,  afterwards  im- 
perial minister  at  Warsaw,  and  ambassador  at  the 
court  of  England.     He  was  an  accomplished 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


285 


scholar,  and  an  ardent  Orientalist.  Mr.  Jones 
corresponded  with  him  for  some  time,  chiefly  in 
Latin,  occasionally  in  French. 

During  the  summer  of  1769,  Mr.  Jones  had 
the  pleasure  of  accompanying  his  young  pupil  to 
Harrow,  and  of  enjoying  again  the  society  of  his 
friend,  Dr.  Sumner.  While  there,  he  revised  a 
Persian  Grammar,  which  he  had  written  some 
time  before,  and  began  a  Persian  Dictionary. 
He  was  led  also,  about  the  same  time,  to  devote 
his  attention  more  seriously  to  the  evidences  of 
the  Christian  religion.  In  order  to  form  a  better 
judgment,  he  determined  to  read  the  entire  Bible 
in  the  original ;  and  his  conviction  became  thereby 
the  firmer  of  its  authenticity  and  inspiration. 

The  following,  transcribed  from  his  manuscript 
in  his  own  Bible,  has  often  been  printed,  but 
it  is  not  on  that  account  less  worthy  of  inser- 
tion here.  It  contains  his  deliberate  opinion, 
which  he  pronounced  once,  at  least,  before  the 
Asiatic  Society  in  India,  of  which  he  was  founder 
and  president.  "  I  have  carefully  and  regularly 
perused  these  Holy  Scriptures,  and  am  of  opinion 
that  the  volume,  independently  of  its  divine  ori- 
gin, contains  more  sublimity,  purer  morality,  more 
important  history,  and  finer  strains  of  eloquence, 
than  can  be  collected  from  all  other  books,  in 
whatever  language  they  may  have  been  written." 

Although  Mr.  Jones's  connection  with  the 
family  of  Lord  Spencer  was  very  agreeable,  yet 
he  began,  after  a  time,  to  feel  that  his  independent 
exertions  were  somewhat  confined  by  his  course 
of  life ;  and  that,  while  relying  upon  the  patronage 
of  those  with  whom  he  was  then  connected,  there 
was  less  scope  for  the  vigorous  and  manly  em- 


28f> 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


ployment  of  his  own  abilities.  He  determined, 
therefore,  to  commence  the  study  of  the  law,  re 
solving  to  make  the  practice  of  it  his  profession. 
He  did  not,  at  first,  think  it  necessary  to  forsake 
entirely  his  oriental  pursuits,  nor  would  it  have 
been  possible  for  him  to  do  so  in  a  moment. 
Literature  had  become  a  part  of  his  life.  Still,  he 
devoted  himself  with  great  assiduity  to  the  study  of 
jurisprudence.  His  letters  at  this  time  show  that 
his  mind  was  divided  between  the  two  pursuits. 

"  I  have  just  begun,"  he  writes  on  one  occasion, 
"  to  contemplate  the  stately  edifice  of  the  laws  of 
England  — 

'  The  gathered  wisdom  of  a  thousand  years,' 

if  you  will  allow  me  to  parody  a  line  of  Pope. 
I  do  not  see  why  the  study  of  the  law  is  called 
dry  and  unpleasant ;  and  I  very  much  suspect 
that  it  seems  so  to  those  only  who  would  think 
any  study  unpleasant,  which  required  great  appli- 
cation of  the  mind  and  exertion  of  the  memory. 
*  *  *  *  I  have  opened  two  common-place  books, 
the  one  of  the  law,  the  other  of  oratory,  which  is 
surely  too  much  neglected  by  our  modern  speak- 
ers. *  *  *  *  But  I  must  lay  aside  my  studies  for 
about  six  weeks,  while  I  am  printing  my  Grammar, 
from  which  a  good  deal  is  expected,  and  which 
I  must  endeavor  to  make  as  perfect  as  a  human 
work  can  be.  When  that  is  finished,  I  shall  attend 
the  Court  of  King's  Bench  very  constantly." 

In  1772,  Mr.  Jones  was  elected  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society.  In  1774,  he  published  his  Com- 
mentaries on  Asiatic  Poetry.  They  had  been 
finished  for  some  years;  but  he  delayed  the  print- 
ing, in  order  to  submit  them  to  the  criticism  of 


SIR  WILLIAM  J  ONUS. 


287 


scholars.  They  were  written  in  Latin,  and  com- 
manded the  approbation  of  the  learned  every- 
where. Dr.  Parr  said  of  them,  in  a  letter  to  the 
author,  "I  have  read  your  book,  De  Poesi 
Asiatica,  with  all  the  attention  that  is  due  to  a 
work  so  studiously  designed,  and  so  happily  exe- 
cuted. *  *  *  *  The  inaccuracies  are  very  rare, 
and  very  trifling.  On  the  whole,  there  is  a  purity, 
an  ease,  an  elegance  in  the  style,  which  show  an 
accurate  and  most  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Latin 
tongue.  Your  Latin  translations  in  verse  gave 
me  great  satisfaction.  I  am  uncommonly  charmed 
with  the  idyllium  called  Chrysis.  The  flow  of 
the  verses,  the  poetic  style  of  the  words,  and  the 
elegant  turn  of  the  whole  poem,  are  admirable." 

In  a  letter  to  him  about  this  time,  we  find  Lady 
Spencer  thanking  him  for  his  Andrometer.  This 
was  a  kind  of  scale  which  Mr.  Jones  had  pre- 
pared, indicating  the  occupation  to  which  his  life 
should  be  devoted,  if  protracted  to  the  age  of 
threescore  years  and  ten.  The  first  thirty  years 
he  sets  apart  for  laying  the  foundation  of  future 
activity,  by  a  wide  and  thorough  course  of  study 
in  the  languages,  sciences,  history,  &c.  The  next 
twenty,  he  devotes  mainly  to  public  and  professional 
occupations.  Of  the  next  ten,  five  are  assigned  to 
literary  and  scientific  composition,  and  the  re- 
maining five  to  a  continuation  of  former  pursuits. 
The  last  ten  he  reserves  for  a  dignified  rest  from 
labors,  and  enjoyment  of  the  fruit  of  them,  crown- 
ing the  whole  with  a  preparation  for  eternity. 
This  sketch  was  rather  a  hasty  methodising  of  his 
thoughts,  than  a  sober  statement  of  plans ;  but  it 
shows  that  he  was  not  content  to  live  at  hap- 
hazard.   Nor  did  he  intend  to  defer  a  preparation 


288 


SIR   "WILLIAM  JONES. 


for  eternity  till  the  close  of  life,  but  rather  to  in- 
dicate, that,  at  the  advanced  period  to,  which  he 
assigned  it,  this  was  the  only  subject  which  could 
with  propriety  engross  the  thoughts.  As  far  as 
his  own  attainments  were  concerned,  at  the  age 
when  he  made  this  sketch,  he  had  far  surpassed 
the  limits  which  he  had  set  for  others.  He  was  also 
destined  to  prove  how  vain  are  our  plans  for  the 
future ;  how  fragile  are  the  air-castles  with  which 
we  adorn  the  later  years  of  our  transitory  existence. 

Although  we  find,  that  with  every  year  he  felt 
the  necessity  of  devoting  himself  without  reserve 
to  his  profession,  even  to  the  extent  of  utterly 
abandoning  his  oriental  studies,  yet  he  could  not 
entirely  tear  himself  away  from  letters.  He  cor- 
responded with  some  of  the  most  learned  men  on 
the  continent.  In  1778,  he  published  a  translation 
of  a  part  of  the  orations  of  Isaeus.  Nothing  but 
exhausted  health  or  spirits  turned  him  from 
study.  Even  in  the  amusements  to  which  he 
was  occasionally  driven,  the  eagerness  of  his  spirit 
is  exhibited.  "  I  must  tell  you  here,  by  way  of 
parenthesis,"  he  writes  from  Bath  to  Lord  Al- 
thorpe,  "  that  I  joined  a  small  party  of  hunters  the 
other  morning,  and  was  in  at  the  death  of  the 
hare ;  but  I  must  confess  that  I  think  hare-hunt- 
ing a  very  dull  exercise,  and  fit  rather  for  a  hunt- 
ress than  a  mighty  hunter  —  rather  for  Diana 
than  Orion.  Had  I  the  taste  and  vigor  of  Ac- 
taeon,  without  his  indiscreet  curiosity,  my  game 
would  be  the  stag  and  the  fox,  and  I  should  leave 
the  hare  in  peace,  without  sending  her  to  her 
many  friends.  This  heresy  of  mine  may  arise 
from  my  fondness  for  every  thing  vast,  and  my 
disdain  of  every  thing  little  ;  and  for  the  same 


SIK  WILLI  \  M  JONES, 


289 


reason,  I  should  prefer  the  more  violent  sport  of 
the  Asiatics,  who  enclose  a  whole  district  with 
toils,  and  then  attack  the  tigers  and  leopards  with 
javelins,  to  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  clarions." 

From  suggestions  made  to  him  from  various 
quarters,  Mr.  Jones  supposed  that  he  might  re- 
ceive the  appointment  of  judge  in  the  East  Indies, 
a  post  for  which  his  legal  as  well  as  oriental  learn- 
ing abundantly  fitted  him.  This  honor,  however, 
which  he  earnestly  desired,  was  not  conferred  till 
several  years  later.  In  the  mean  time,  he  pur- 
sued his  profession  with  increasing  success. 

In  1780,  he  was  afflicted  by  the  death  of  that 
mother  who  had  devoted  herself  so  entirely  to  his 
education,  and  had  rejoiced  so  sincerely  in  his 
prosperity.  Her  love  he  repaid  with  equal  affec- 
tion, and  uniformly  made  her  the  confidant  of  his 
plans  and  hopes.  During  the  same  year,  he  made 
a  memorandum  of  his  proposed  course  of  study, 
which,  in  addition  to  the  Andrometer,  before  re- 
ferred to,  will  show  how  broad  were  his  plans, 
and  how  thoroughly  he  meant  to  carry  them  out. 
The  memorandum,  in  his  own  handwriting,  was 
as  follows  :  —  "  Resolved,  to  learn  no  more  rudi- 
ments of  any  kind,  but  to  perfect  myself  in,  first, 
twelve  languages,  as  the  means  of  acquiring  accu- 
rate knowledge  of  the 

I.  History  of  1.  Man;  2.  Nature. 
II.  Arts.  1.  Rhetoric;  2. Poetry;  3.  Painting;  4. Music. 
III.  Sciences.  l.Law;  2.  Mathematics ;  3.  Dialectic. 

The  twelve  languages  are  Greek,  Latin,  Italian, 
French,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  Hebrew,  Arabic, 
Persian,  Turkish,  German,  English.  1780." 

In  March,  1783,  the  long-expected  judgeship 
was  conferred  upon  him.    In  expectation  of  it, 
-vorr-s.  a& 


290 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


he  had  rather  avoided  a  great  increase  of  busi- 
ness at  home,  and  had  begun  to  feel  the  injury 
which  the  delay  caused  him.  He  was  appointed 
a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature  at 
Fort  William,  in  Bengal,  and  at  the  same  time 
received  the  honor  of  knighthood.  Being  ren- 
dered, by  this  appointment,  independent  in  his 
pecuniary  relations,  he  consummated  another 
ardent  wish,  in  marrying  the  daughter  of  the 
Bishop  of  St.  Asaph.  In  April  of  the  same  year, 
he  embarked  for  India,  in  the  Crocodile  frigate. 
He  never  looked  upon  England  again.  He  was 
thirty-seven  years  of  age,  in  the  full  vigor  of 
health,  and  abounding  in  hopes  of  honorable  ser- 
vices and  attainments  in  India. 

During  his  voyage  out,  he  prepared  another  of 
those  memoranda  which  indicate  so  strongly  the 
habit  of  his  mind,  his  forecast,  and  unwillingness 
to  leave  the  future  employment  of  his  time  to  the 
accidental  allurements  of  the  day.  A  scholar 
undoubtedly  makes  the  least  advancement  when 
he  studies  without  method  or  plan.  With  a 
course  marked  out  beforehand,  and  followed  with 
perseverance,  his  attainments  are  enlarged  and 
insured.  The  following  is  the  memorandum  re- 
ferred to :  — 

Objects  of  Inquiry  during  my  Residence  in  Asia. 

1.  The  Laws  of  the  Hindus  and  Mahomraedans. 

2.  The  History  of  the  Ancient  World. 

3.  Proofs  and  Illustrations  of  Scripture. 

4.  Traditions  concerning  the  Deluge,  &c. 

5.  Modern  Politics  and  Geography  of  Hindustan. 

6.  Best  mode  of  governing  Bengal. 

7.  Arithmetic  and  Geometry,  and  Mixed  Sciences  of  the 
Asiatics. 

8.  Medicine,  Chemistry,  Surgery,  and  Anatomy  of  the 
Indians. 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


291 


9.  Natural  productions  of  India. 

10.  Poetry,  Rhetoric,  and  -Morality  of  Asia. 

11.  Music  of  the  Eastern  Nations. 

12.  The  Shi-King,  or  300  Chinese  Odes. 

13.  The  hest  accounts  of  Thihet  and  Cashmir. 

14.  Trade,  Manufacture,  Agriculture,  and  Commerce  of 
India. 

15.  Mogul  Constitution,  contained  in  the  Defteri,  Alem- 
ghiri,  and  Agein  Acbari. 

16.  Mahratta  Constitution. 

To  print  and  publish  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke  in  Arabic. 
To  publish  Law  Tracts  in  Persian  or  Arabic. 
To  print  and  publish  the  Psalms  of  David  in  Persian 
verse. 

To  compose,  if  God  grant  me  life, 

1.  Elements  of  the  Laws  of  England. 

Model — The  Essay  on  Bailment  —  Aristotle. 

2.  The  History  of  the  American  War. 

Model —  Thucydides  and  Polybius. 

3.  Britain  Discovered,  an  Heroic  Poem  on  the  Consti- 
tution of  England.    -Machinery.    Hindu  Gods. 

Model  —  Homer. 

4.  Speeches,  Political  and  Eorensic. 

Model  —  Demosthenes. 

5.  Dialogues,  Philosophical  and  Historical. 

Model  —  Plato. 

6.  Letters. 

Model  —  Demosthenes  and  Plato. 

12th  Juiy,  1783.    Crocodile  Erigate. 

In  September,  after  a  prosperous  voyage,  Sir 
"William,  as  he  was  then  called,  landed  at  Cal- 
cutta, and  in  December  of  the  same  year  entered 
upon  his  judicial  duties.  His  reputation  had  pre- 
ceded him,  nor  were  the  public  expectations  dis- 
appointed by  the  first  act  of  his  public  life,  which 
was  a  charge  to  the  grand  jury  at  the  opening  of 
the  sessions.  As  soon  as  his  duties  allowed  him, 
he  devised  the  plan  of  a  society  for  carrying 
on  researches  to  which  the  efforts  of  individuals 
were  inadequate,  and   for  preserving  valuable 


292 


*IR  WILLTAM  JONES. 


tracts  and  essays.  The  presidency  of  this  insti- 
tution was  first  offered  to  Warren  Hastings,  then 
Governor-General  of  India;  and,  on  his  declining 
it,  Sir  William  Jones  was  elected  to  the  office. 
He  immediately  commenced  the  study  of  the 
Sanscrit,  both  that  he  might  better  fulfil  his  duties 
as  president,  and  still  more,  that  he  might  be  able 
to  judge  more  accurately  and  independently  of 
the  Hindu  law.  In  order  to  fulfil  his  plans  of 
study,  he  found  that  a  strict  economy  of  time  was 
absolutely  demanded.  Perhaps  it  was  about  this 
time  that  he  improved  upon  Sir  Edward  Coke's 
division  of  time  :  — 

"  Six  hours  in  sleep,  in  law's  grave  study  six, 
Four  spend  in  prayer  —  the  rest  on  nature  fix." 

"  Rather:'  says  Sir  William, 

"  Six  hours  to  law,  to  soothing  slumber  seven, 
Ten  to  the  world  allot,  and  all  to  heaven." 

While  at  Calcutta,  he  found  that  the  attraction  of 
his  conversation  drew  about  him  so  many  friends, 
that,  gratifying  as  it  was,  his  studies  were  much 
retarded  by  it.  He  therefore  chose  a  country  res- 
idence at  not  a  great  distance  from  the  city,  where 
he  might  sutler  less  interruption,  and  enjoy  better 
health.  The  duties  of  the  court,  however,  called 
him  back  again  to  town.  u  How  long  my  health 
will  continue  in  this  town,"  he  writes  to  a  friend, 
"  with  constant  attendance  in  court  every  morn- 
ing, and  the  irksome  business  of  justice  of  peace 
in  the  afternoon,  I  cannot  foresee.  If  temperance 
and  composure  of  mind  will  avail,  I  shall  be  well ; 
but  I  would  rather  be  a  valetudinarian  all  my 
life,  than  leave  unexplored  the  Sanscrit  mine 
which  I  have  just  opened."    "  By  rising  before 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


293 


the  sun,"  he  says  in  another  letter,  "  I  allot  an 
hour  everyday  to  Sanscrit,  and  am  charmed  with 
knowing  so  beautiful  a  sister  of  Latin  and  Greek." 
While  residing  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  at 
the  distance  of  five  mile-s  from  the  court,  it  was 
his  custom  to  rise  so  early  in  the  morning  as  to 
walk  to  his  apartments  in  town  by  the  dawn  of 
day,  returning  again  in  the  evening  after  sunset. 
"  It  rarely  happens,"  he  writes  to  a  friend,  "  that 
favorite  studies  are  closely  connected  with  the 
strict  discharge  of  our  duty,  as  mine  happily  are : 
even  in  this  cottage,  I  am  assisting  the  court,  by 
studying  the  Arabic  and  Sanscrit,  and  have  now 
rendered  it  an  impossibility  for  the  Mahommedan 
or  Hindu  lawyers  to  impose  upon  us  with  erro- 
neous opinions." 

A  favorite  project  of  his  was  to  make  a  complete 
digest  of  Hindu  and  Mahommedan  laws,  after  the 
model  of  the  pandects  of  Justinian.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  was  evident  from  the  fact  that  the 
Hindu  and  Mussulman  laws  were  written,  for  the 
most  part,  in  Sanscrit  and  Arabic ;  and  he  says, 
"My  experience  justifies  me  in  declaring,  that  I 
could  not,  with  an  easy  conscience,  concur  in  a  de- 
cision, merely  on  the  written  opinion  of  native 
lawyers,  in  any  cause  in  which  they  could  have 
the  remotest  interest  in  misleading  the  court :  nor, 
how  vigilant  soever  we  might  be,  would  it  be  very 
difficult  for  them  to  mislead  us  ;  for  a  single  ob- 
scure text,  explained  by  themselves,  might  be 
quoted  as  express  authority;  though  perhaps,  in 
the  very  book  from  which  it  was  selected,  it  might 
be  differently  explained,  or  introduced  only  for 
the  purpose  of  being  exploded."  The  work  being 
beyond  the  resources  of  a  private  man,  he,  after 


294 


SIR  WILLIAM  JONES. 


some  hesitation,  applied  to  Lord  Cornwallis,  the 
Governor-General,  for  assistance  from  the  State; 
or  rather,  setting  forth  the  importance  of  the  pro- 
ject, and  offering  his  services,  if  they  should  be 
found  to  be  of  any  value  to  the  government. 
The  otfer  was  gladly  accepted  by  that  enlightened 
officer;  and  Sir  William  immediately  entered  upon 
the  performance  of  the  duty,  by  selecting  from 
the  learned  natives  those  whom  he  thought  best 
qualified  for  the  task,  and  by  tracing  out  the  plan 
of  the  digest,  and  prescribing  its  arrangement. 

In  the  beginning  of  1794,  he  published  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Ordinances  of  Menu,  a  work  upon 
which  he  had  long  been  engaged,  and  which  he 
considered  of  great  interest,  as  exhibiting  the 
manners  of  a  very  ancient  people,  as  well  as  their 
moral  and  religious  system,  to  which  they  have 
adhered  down  to  the  present  time.  Sir  William's 
health  was  generally  very  good  ;  he  often  speaks 
of  himself  as  having  conquered  the  climate  ;  and 
even  the  severe  and  protracted  labors  which  con- 
fined him  in  the  court  for  six  or  seven  hours  a 
day,  and  to  his  chambers  four  or  five  hours  more, 
did  not  overcome  his  constitution.  Lady  Jones, 
however,  suffered  so  much  from  constant  debility, 
that  he  persuaded  her,  after  much  urging,  to  re- 
turn to  England.  He  would  himself  have  accom- 
panied her,  having  spent  ten  years  in  India,  if  he 
had  not  felt  bound  to  remain  and  complete  his  vol- 
untarily-assumed task  of  the  digest  of  Hindu  laws. 

He  little  thought,  when  she,  in  obedience  to  his 
repeated  request,  sailed  about  the  first  of  the  year 
1794,  that  they  were  never  to  meet  again.  On 
the  20th  of  April,  of  the  same  year,  having  pro- 
longed his  walk  to  a  late  hour,  during  which  he 


STVt  WILLIAM  JONES. 


295 


had  remained  some  time  in  conversation  in  an  un 
wholesome  place,  he  complained  of  symptoms  of 
the  ague.  The  disease  soon  proved  to  be  an  in- 
flammation of  the  liver,  and  in  seven  days  he 
breathed  his  last,  aged  forty-seven  years.  The 
translation  of  the  digest  of  Hindu  law  he  did  not 
live  to  complete.  It  was  afterwards  accomplished 
by  one  of  the  officers  of  the  East  India  Company. 

The  tidings  of  his  death  were  everywhere  re- 
ceived with  sorrow;  and  the  means  taken,  both  in 
England  and  India,  to  testify  respect  for  his  mem- 
ory, were  all  that  his  friends  could  desire.  His 
learning,  as  we  have  indicated,  was  vast.  Al- 
though he  turned  his  attention  to  languages  with 
such  distinguished  success,  yet  he  seemed  to  seize 
upon  all  knowledge  with  almost  equal  avidity. 
One  of  the  last  studies  which  he  took  up  with 
interest  was  botany.  He  was  accustomed  to 
maintain  that  all  were  born  with  an  equal  ca- 
pacity for  improvement ;  and  to  a  friend  who 
asserted  the  contrary,  and,  in  a  few  pleasant 
verses,  supported  his  opinion  by  a  reference  to 
Sir  William  himself,  he  replied,  almost  im- 
promptu, modestly  estimating  his  character  in 
lines  with  which  we  may  well  close  this  sketch. 

"  Ah !  but  too  well,  dear  friend,  I  know 
My  fancy  weak,  my  reason  slow, 
My  memory  by  art  improved, 
My  mind  by  baseless  trifles  moved. 
Give  me  (thus  high  my  pride  I  raise) 
The  ploughman's  or  the  gardener's  praise, 
With  patient  and  unmeaning  toil, 
To  meliorate  a  stubborn  soil ; 
And  say  (no  higher  meed  I  ask), 
With  zeal  hast  thou  performed  thy  task. 
Praise,  of  which  virtuous  minds  may  boast, 
They  best  confer  who  merit  most." 
— -  o 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


Among  the  distinguished  patriots  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  the  name  of  Patrick  Henry  will 
never  be  forgotten,  and  never  be  refused  a  com- 
manding eminence.  He  was  in  the  maturity  of 
his  powers  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  made,  and  had  a  full  share  of  influence  in 
bringing  about  that  momentous  event.  He  was 
among  the  most  impassioned  and  effective  of 
American  orators,  in  a  time  fruitful  of  great  men  ; 
—  he  attained  the  highest  office  in  the  important 
State  of  Virginia ;  —  he  held  posts  of  extreme  re- 
sponsibility connected  with  the  government  of  the 
United  States  ;  —  and  all  this  he  effected  through 
the  almost  unaided  efforts  of  his  own  mind. 

Patrick  Henry  was  the  son  of  a  Scotchman, 
a  native  of  Aberdeen,  who  came  to  this  country 
in  the  first  part  of  the  last  century,  and  established 
himself  in  Virginia.  He  was  one  of  nine  children, 
born  at  Studley,  in  Hanover  county,  May  26, 
1736.  Mrs.  Henry,  his  mother,  was  a  native  of 
Virginia,  and  distinguished  for  many  virtues. 
Patrick  was  early  sent  to  school,  and  made  some 
progress  in  the  common  branches  of  an  English 
education.  His  father  endeavored  to  teach  him 
Latin  and  Greek,  but  his  success  was  entirely 
disproportionate  to  his  wishes.  The  boy  was  de- 
voted to  play  ;  he  loved  the  sports  of  the  field 
above  every  thing  else,  and  could  not  be  confined 
to  the  discipline  of  the  school.  He  chose,  how- 
ever, to  pursue  his  sports  alone  rather  than  in 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


297 


company,  and  would  lie  by  the  hour,  under  the 
shade  of  a  tree,  watching  his  line  floating  upon 
the  quiet  waters,  the  bait  untouched  by  a  single 
fish  ;  or  when  his  party  were  chasing  the  deer, 
would  station  himself  alone,  so  as  to  get  a  shot  at 
the  passing  animal,  without  the  ordinary  tumult 
of  the  chase.  This  love  of  solitude,  and  his  early 
habit  of  observing  the  character  of  those  whom  he 
was  accustomed  to  meet,  were  the  only  traits 
which  seemed  to  promise  a  future  at  all  distin- 
guished. Nothing  indicated  what  he  was  to  be- 
come. "  His  person,"  says  Mr.  Wirt,  "  was  rep- 
resented as  having  been  coarse,  his  manners 
uncommonly  awkward,  his  dress  slovenly,  his 
conversation  very  plain,  his  aversion  to  study  in- 
vincible, and  his  faculties  almost  entirely  benumbed 
by  indolence.  No  persuasion  could  bring  him 
either  to  read  or  to  work." 

This  picture  is  sufficiently  dark  ;  and  lest  any 
one,  in  seeing  afterwards  the  brilliant  career  of 
Mr.  Henry,  should  be  encouraged  to  early  idle- 
ness, it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  great 
man  was  not  exempted  from  the  stern  law  which 
affixes  a  penalty  to  every  transgression.  He  was 
obliged  to  toil  through  years  of  early  wretchedness 
and  poverty;  and,  with  all  his  success, could  never 
entirely  in  after  life  supply  the  intellectual  wastes 
of  his  youth. 

At  fifteen  years  of  age,  his  father  placed  him 
with  a  merchant  in  the  country,  that  he  might 
begin  to  earn  his  own  bread,  and  the  next  year 
established  him  in  trade,  in  company  with  another 
son,  William.  They  did  not  succeed.  The  only 
good  that  seemed  to  come  from  the  trial  was,  tbat 
it  gave  Patrick  a  wider  opportunity  to  study  the 


298 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


more  delicate  shades  of  character  in  the  persons 
of  his  customers.  It  is  said  that  when  a  company 
of  them  were  together  in  his  shop,  if  they  were 
talkative,  the  future  orator  would  remain  perfectly 
silent  and  listen ;  but  if  dull,  he  would  take  upon 
himself  to  draw  them  out,  would  propose  questions, 
suggest  hypothetical  cases,  and  relate  stories,  in 
order  to  observe  the  effects  produced  upon  theii 
feelings,  or  their  different  methods  in  debate. 

In  about  a  year  the  concern  failed,  and  Patrick 
spent  the  next  two  or  three  years  in  winding  up 
their  affairs.  Misfortune  did  not  render  him  pru- 
dent, since  we  find  him,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
marrying  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, entirely  respectable  indeed,  but  unable 
to  afford  the  young  couple  any  effectual  assistance. 
Undiscouraged,  however,  the  young  man  obtained 
a  small  farm,  which  he  cultivated  in  part  with  his 
own  hands.  His  want  of  skill  soon  forced  him  to 
abandon  this  mode  of  life.  In  two  years  we 'find 
him  selling  off  his  farm  at  a  sacrifice,  and  embark- 
ing every  thing  once  more  in  merchandise.  Again 
he  was  wrecked,  and  lost  absolutely  every  thing. 
During  this  second  experiment,  however,  his  mind 
had  become  somewhat  more  serious.  He  began 
to  read  and  to  study.  Geography  and  history  be- 
came favorites  with  him.  The  charters  and  early 
records  of  the  colonies,  and  the  translations  of 
ancient  Greek  and  Roman  historians,  were  dili- 
gently perused ;  and  his  tenacious  memory  seized 
and  retained  all  in  them  that  was  valuable. 

Having  now  failed  in  the  pursuits  which  seemed 
naturally  to  attract  him  at  first,  with  a  buoyancy 
of,  spirits  and  a  resolution  above  all  praise,  and  of 
themselves  almost  sure  precursors  of  success,  he 


0  / 

PATRICK  HENRY.  299 


turned  his  attention  to  the  law.  It  was  a  last  re- 
sort, and  one  in  which  there  appeared  very  little 
to  encourage  his  hopes.  He  devoted  to  this  great 
study,  the  ridiculously  brief  period  of  six  weeks, 
and  then  presented  himself  to  the  legal  exam- 
iners for  a  license  to  practise.  They  hesitated  ; 
one  of  them  refused  to  examine  him  ;  but  after- 
wards, being  of  mild  temper  and  perceiving 
evident  marks  of  skill  and  talent  in  the  young 
man,  although  he  was  lamentably  deficient  in 
knowledge  of  law,  they  gave  the  desired  papers. 

He  was  now  twenty-four  years  of  age,  ignorant 
of  his  profession,  sure  to  be  opposed,  if  he  should 
ever  venture  into  the  courts,  by  men  of  generous 
attainments  and  great  practical  skill,  with  a  family 
depending  upon  his  exertions,  and  with  the  very 
smallest  means  of  satisfying  their  wants.  For 
three  years,  during  which  their  distresses  were 
very  great,  his  practice  could  hardly  supply  them 
with  the  bare  necessaries  of  life.  But  he  was 
approaching  the  great  turning  point  of  his  life. 
He  had  suffered  long  and  severely,  but  now  was 
about  to  experience  a  happier  fortune. 

A  warm  controversy  with  the  clergy  had  arisen 
in  Virginia.  The  church  of  England  was  at  this 
time  the  established  church  of  the  colony.  An 
early  act  of  the  Assembly  had  decided  that  each 
minister  of  a  parish  should  receive  an  annual 
salary  of  16,000  pounds  of  tobacco.  The  gen- 
eral price  of  tobacco  did  not  much  vary  from 
two  pence  the  pound ;  but  the  clergy  were  ac- 
customed to  receive  their  stipend  in  the  article 
itself,  unless,  for  the  sake  of  greater  convenience, 
they  commuted  it  for  money.  The  year  1755 
proved  a  bad  one  for  the  crop,  and  the  price  con- 


300  PATRICK  HENRY. 

sequent  ly  rose.  An  act  was  passed  by  the  legis- 
lature authorizing  the  payment  of  all  "  tobacco 
debts,"  in  money  at  the  rate  of  "  two  pence  the 
pound."  This  measure,  though  thought  to  be  un- 
just, was  not  disputed,  because  it  was  limited  in 
effect  to  one  year.  In  1758,  however,  the  law 
was  revived,  upon  a  prospect  of  a  small  crop,  and 
then  the  clergy  determined  to  resist  it.  A  war 
of  pamphlets  was  carried  on  between  them  and 
the  planters,  which  excited  the  strongest  feelings 
on  both  sides.  It  was  contended  with  evident  jus- 
tice, that  the  act  was  entirely  for  the  benefit  of 
the  planters,  who  received  fifty  or  sixty  shillings 
a  hundred  for  their  tobacco;  "while  they  were 
permitted  to  pay  their  debts  due  in  that  article, 
at  the  old  price  of  sixteen  shillings  and  eight 
pence."  The  popular  feeling  was  strongly  against 
the  clergy.  The  king,  however,  declared  the  act 
an  usurpation  and  of  no  binding  force.  The  cler- 
gy brought  their  suit  against  the  collector  of  the 
county,  and  gained  it;  the  judges  giving  their 
opinion  against  the  act  of  1758  ;  and  the  question 
was  then  on  the  amount  of  damages.  The  lawyer 
who  had  thus  far  managed  the  case  for  the  plan- 
ters, gave  it  up  in  despair.  Mr.  Henry  was  then 
applied  to,  and  undertook  to  argue  the  cause  at 
the  next  court.  On  the  appointed  day,  the  room 
was  crowded.  The  clergy  appeared  in  full  force. 
Mr.  Henry's  father  was  the  presiding  magistrate. 
The  counsel  on  the  other  side  stated  the  case  fully 
and  fairly,  and  with  much  eloquence,  greatly  to 
the  satisfaction  of  his  clients.  Mr.  Henry  rose  in 
his  turn,  and,  with  awkwardness  and  a  faltering 
tongue,  stammered  out  his  exordium.  But  soon 
every  thing  was  changed.    His  attitude  became 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


301 


erect ;  Lis  countenance  glowed ;  the  whole  man 
became  instinct  with  life;  and  in  his  tones  there 
was  a  magic  perfectly  overwhelming.  He  seemed 
like  a  new  creature,  and  bj  his  unexpected  elo- 
quence absolutely  swept  along  with  him  the 
audience,  the  jury,  and  the  court.  It  was  a  tri- 
umphant exhibition  of  the  power  of  feeling;  for  of 
argument  there  probably  was  very  little.  The 
clergy  actually  fled  from  the  bench  ;  tears  streamed 
down  the  cheeks  of  his  father,  who  forgot  every 
thing  in  the  unexpected  success  of  his  son ;  and 
the  jury,  disregarding  the  admitted  rights  of  the 
plaintiff,  returned  a  verdict  of  one  penny  damages. 
A  motion  was  made  for  a  new  trial,  but  the  court 
overruled  it.  No  sooner  was  the  cause  decided 
than  the  people  seized  the  successful  advocate, 
bore  him  out  of  the  court-house,  and  carried  him 
about  the  yard  on  their  shoulders  in  triumph. 
No  record  of  this  speech  was  preserved,  and  those 
who  heard  it  could  give  little  account  of  it.  They 
only  remembered  its  effects;  and  long  afterwards, 
when  they  would  praise  a  man  for  eloquence, 
were  accustomed  to  say,  "  he  is  almost  equal  to 
Patrick,  when  he  plead  against  the  parsons" 

By  this  effort  Mr.  Henry  became  famous  in 
that  part  of  the  colony,  and  every  undecided  case 
of  the  same  kind  was  put  into  his  hands.  He, 
however,  was  still  subjected  to  a  trying  struggle 
against  want ;  and,  in  the  course  of  his  practice, 
was  often  compelled  to  lament  the  deficiencies  of 
his  legal  knowledge,  for  want  of  which,  men,  much 
his  inferiors  in  general  power,  not  unfrequently 
carried  away  the  victory. 

Virginia  exhibited  at  that  time  strong  differ- 
ences between  the  various  classes  of  society. 

vetr-rr:  —86 


302 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


The  wealthy  and  aristocratic  landholders  were 
separated,  both  in  feelings  and  in  manners,  from 
the  poorer  yeomanry,  who  looked  upon  them  with 
considerable  jealousy.  Mr.  Henry  sprang  from 
the  humbler  class,  and  was  ever  regarded  by  the 
people  as  one  of  themselves.  He  was  sometimes 
accused  even  of  imitating  their  rude  manners  and 
outlandish  accent  for  the  sake  of  gaining  the 
greater  popularity.  He  had  no  need,  however,  of 
employing  these  unworthy  arts,  when  his  nobler 
natural  gifts  were  amply  sufficient  to  secure  the 
love  and  confidence  of  those  whom  he  was  chosen 
to  serve. 

Notwithstanding  the  general  roughness  of  his 
appearance,  and  his  deficiency  in  mere  legal 
knowledge,  and  the  occasional  impropriety  in  his 
use  or  pronunciation  of  language,  there  was  a 
charm  about  his  speaking,  even  upon  ordinary 
subjects,  which  was  perfectly  fascinating.  Judge 
Lyons,  of  Virginia,  was  accustomed  to  say  "  that 
he  could  write  a  letter,  or  draw  a  declaration  or 
plea,  at  the  bar,  with  as  much  accuracy  as  he 
could  in  his  office,  under  all  circumstances,  except 
when  Patrick  rose  to  speak  ;  but  that,  whenever 
he  rose,  he  was  obliged  to  lay  down  his  pen,  and 
could  not  write  another  word  until  the  speech 
was  finished." 

The  years  which  immediately  followed  Mr. 
Henry's  full  success  in  legal  practice,  were  the  most 
eventful  of  his  life,  and  among  the  most  important 
in  American  history.  In  January,  1765,  the  fa- 
mous stamp  act  was  passed  by  the  British  Parlia- 
ment. The  object  was  to  raise  a  revenue  from 
the  colonies ;  the  distant  results  were  such  as  the 
most  sagacious  statesmen  did  not  conjecture. 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


303 


The  intelligence  of  this  procedure  fell  upon  the 
colonies  with  disheartening  effect.  Resistance 
was  hardly  thought  of;  but  the  measure  seemed 
fraught  with  great  injury  to  a  people  who  thus 
were  liable  to  any  amount  of  taxation  by  a  gov- 
ernment in  which  they  had  no  share,  and  which, 
at  the  best,  was  liable  to  misunderstand  their  ca- 
pacities and  their  disposition.  On  the  rumor  that 
such  a  measure  was  in  anticipation,  the  House  of 
Burgesses  of  Virginia  prepared  an  address  to  the 
King,  a  memorial  to  the  Lords,  and  a  remon- 
strance to  the  House  of  Commons.  The  act, 
however  was  passed,  to  go  into  effect  in  Novem- 
ber, 1765.  The  House  of  Burgesses  met  again 
in  May,  and  Mr.  Henry  was  elected  a  member, 
partly  for  the  purpose  of  adding  the  influence  of 
his  fervid  eloquence  to  the  proceedings  which  it 
was  presumed  would  be  entered  upon  in  view  of 
the  emergency. 

The  session,  however  wore  away,  and  the  lead- 
ers of  the  house,  the  gifted  aristocracy  of  the 
State,  brought  forward  no  plan  for  expressing  the 
feelings  of  the  people.*  In  the  mean  time  Mr. 
Henry  had  rendered  himself  obnoxious  to  the 
leading  men,  by  opposing  successfully  a  measure 
which  they  had  brought  forward  relating  to  the 
financial  affairs  of  the  State.    His  eloquence  was 

*  It  was  during  this  session  that  General  Washington 
received  the  public  thanks  of  the  house,  for  his  conduct  in 
the  French  and  Indian  Avar.  In  rising  to  express  his  ac- 
knowledgments for  the  honor,  he  was  so  much  overcome 
with  various  feelings  that  he  could  not  utter  a  word.  The 
Speaker,  Mr.  Robinson,  came  to  his  relief  by  adding  to  his 
former  remarks  with  great  felicity  —  "  Sit  down.  Mr.  Wash- 
ington ;  your  modesty  is  equal  to  your  valor,  and  that  sur- 
passes the  power  of  any  language  that  I  possess." 


304 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


admired,  but  began  to  be  feared.  Such  was  the 
state  of  things,  when,  within  three  days  of  the 
close  of  the  session,  having  waited  in  vain  for  the 
expected  demonstration  of  others,  he  brought  for- 
ward his  resolutions  on  the  Stamp  act.  They 
were  brief,  plain,  and  earnest,  and  asserted  with 
great  distinctness  and  strength  the  sole  right  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  colony  to  tax  themselves, 
and  the  danger  to  the  liberty  both  of  England 
and  America,  of  vesting  this  power  anywhere 
else. 

These  famous  resolutions  were  debated  with 
great  vigor;  the  more  wealthy  members  and  those 
highest  in  social  distinction  opposing  them,  partly 
on  the  ground  that  no  answer  had  yet  been  re- 
ceived to  their  remonstrance  of  the  preceding 
year.  They  were,  however,  carried,  although  by 
a  majority  of  only  one  or  two.  Mr.  Henry  left 
town  the  same  day ;  and  on  the  following  morning, 
the  strongest  of  the  resolutions  was  repealed ;  but 
the  impression  produced  by  the  action  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  the  eloquent  discussion  which  pre- 
ceded it,  spread  through  the  country,  and  added 
immensely  to  the  feeling  of  hostility  with  which 
the  measure  of  the  British  Government  began  to 
be  regarded.  An  anecdote  is  told  of  Mr.  Henry 
during  his  vehement  speech  on  the  resolutions, 
which  illustrates  remarkably  his  peculiar  powers. 
We  give  it  in  the  words  of  his  eloquent  biogra- 
pher, Mr.  Wirt.  "It  was  in  the  midst  of  this 
magnificent  debate,  while  he  was  descanting  on 
the  tyranny  of  the  obnoxious  act,  that  he  ex- 
claimed, in  a  voice  of  thunder,  '  Caesar  had  his 
Brutus,  —  Charles  the  First,  his  Cromwell,  —  and 
George    the    Third  —  ('Treason!'    cried  the 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


305 


Speaker,  —  1  treason ! '  '  treason ! '  echoed  from 
every  part  of  the  house.  It  was  one  of  those  try- 
ing moments  which  is  decisive  of  character. 
Henry  faltered  not  for  an  instant ;  but  rising  to  a 
loftier  attitude,  and  fixing  on  the  Speaker  an  eye 
of  the  most  determined  tire,  he  finished  his  sen- 
tence with  the  firmest  emphasis)  may  projit  by 
their  example.  If  this  be  treason,  make  the  most 
of  it." 

The  stamp  act  was  subsequently  repealed,  and 
the  collision  between  the  mother  country  and  the 
colonies  was  for  a  time  delayed. 

Although  prominently  before  the  country  as  a 
public  man,  Mr.  Henry  continued  in  active  prac- 
tice of  the  law.  For  some  of  the  duties  of  this 
great  profession,  he  was  remarkably  fitted ;  while, 
with  respect  to  others,  he  was  very  deficient. 
"  He  never  did  and  never  could  vanquish  his 
aversion  to  the  systematic  study  of  the  law." 
Hence  it  happened,  that  when  contending  on  legal 
points,  with  men  of  distinguished  abilities  and  at- 
tainments, he  was  very  frequently  vanquished. 
He  could  not  adduce  authorities,  or,  if  he  ven- 
tured to  bring  them  forward,  it  not  unfrequently 
happened,  that  he  did  it  so  unskillfully  as  to  de- 
feat his  own  purpose.  But  in  questions  where 
natural  justice,  and  the  great  principles  of  equity 
were  concerned,  the  full  vigor  of  his  genius  made 
itself  felt.  If  he  halted  in  arguments  before  the 
court,  no  sooner  did  he  turn  to  the  jury  than  every 
difficulty  vanished.  He  was  in  his  native  element ; 
every  spring  of  feeling  he  knew  how  to  touch  ; 
before  the  jury  knew  it,  and  spite  of  their  resolu- 
tions to  the  contrary,  he  wound  his  silken  cords 
about  them,  and  led  them  wherever  he  pleased. 
 ^ciLi-n.  20* 


306 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


His  voice  was  charming,  Lis  address  delicate, 
insinuating,  and  without  pretence  or  parade  ;  by  a 
few  masterly  strokes  he  gave  the  character 
wished  to  the  whole  case,  turned  their  minds 
from  the  unfavorable  points,  and  lighted  up  with 
a  splendid  glow  of  color  all  that  was  favorable  to 
his  client.  He  was  so  accustomed  to  read  the 
character  in  the  face,  that  he  rarely  missed  in  his 
judgment  of  the  jury;  and  his  plastic  power  en- 
abled him  to  adapt  his  argument  and  appeal  to 
their  peculiarities,  with  almost  unerring  certainty. 
"The  eighth  day  of  the  general  court  was  formerly 
set  apart  for  criminal  business.  Mr.  Henry  made 
little  or  no  figure  during  the  civil  days  of  the 
court ;  but  on  the  eighth  day,  he  was  the  mon- 
arch of  the  bar." 

The  satisfaction  felt  in  America  at  the  repeal 
of  the  stamp  act  was  of  short  continuance.  It 
was  soon  perceived  that  the  British  Parliament 
had  retracted  none  of  their  principles.  Duties 
were  imposed  upon  various  articles  of  general 
use  ;  troops  were  quartered  in  some  of  the  princi- 
pal cities,  for  the  purpose  of  overawing  the  inhab- 
itants ;  the  port  of  Boston  was  shut  up ;  the  leg- 
islatures of  different  states  were  dissolved,  for 
opposition  to  the  regal  authority.  In  consequence 
of  these,  and  many  other  acts,  the  home  govern- 
ment came  to  be  regarded  with  great  dislike  ;  and 
although  the  idea  of  independence  was  not  yet  en- 
tertained, the  minds  of  the  people  were  gradually 
preparing  for  it. 

On  the  4th  of  September,  1774,  the  old  Con- 
tinental Congress  met  at  Philadelphia.  The  most 
distinguished  men  in  the  country  were  pres- 
ent.   Among  the  delegates  from  Virginia  were 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


.'507 


George  "Washington  and  Patrick  Henry.  In  the 
proceedings  of  that  venerable  convention,  Mr. 
Henry  bore  a  distinguished  part.  So  far  as  a 
strong  and  eloquent  statement  of  the  grievances 
of  the  colonies  was  concerned,  he  bore  away  the 
palm  ;  but  when  the  convention  proceeded  to  the 
plain  details  of  business,  he  showed  himself  inferior 
to  many  others.  He  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a 
petition  to  the  king ;  but  when  read,  it  was  so  far 
from  meeting  the  general  expectation,  that  it  was 
recommitted,  and  subsequently  another  petition 
prepared  by  another  member  of  the  committee, 
was  adopted.  This  was,  perhaps,  one  of  the  mor- 
tifying results  of  his  neglected  early  education. 

On  returning  from  this  Congress,  Mr.  Henry 
was  asked  who  he  thought  the  greatest  man  in  the 
assembly  ?  "  If  you  speak  of  eloquence,"  he  re- 
plied, "Mr.  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  is  by 
far  the  greatest  orator ;  but  if  you  speak  of  solid 
information  and  sound  judgment,  Colonel  Wash- 
ington is  unquestionably  the  greatest  man  on  that 
floor."  So  early  did  the  minds  of  men  become 
fixed  with  reverent  affection  upon  him  who  is  so 
well  called  The  Father  of  his  Country. 

The  convention  of  Virginia  delegates  met  for 
the  second  time,  on  the  20th  of  March,  1775. 
They  assembled  at  Richmond.  Mr.  Henry  was 
a  member  of  the  body,  and  one  of  the  leading 
spirits  of  it.  After  various  preliminary  business, 
resolutions  were  introduced  expressive  of  the  feel- 
ings of  the  colonies,  and  ending  with  the  hope  of 
a  speedy  return  of  peace  and  quietness.  These 
resolutions  seemed  to  Mr.  Henry  altogether  defi- 
cient in  boldness;  and  he  introduced  another  series, 
of  which  the  last  was  as  follows  •  "  Resolved,  Thai 

<T3 


6U 

308 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


this  colony  be  immediately  put  into  a  state  of  de- 
fence, and  that   be  a  committee  to  prepare  a 

plan  for  embodying,  arming,  and  disciplining  such 
a  number  of  men  as  may  be  sufficient  for  that 
purpose."  For  so  decided  a  step,  the  convention 
was  not  prepared.  The  resolutions  were  opposed 
by  men  of  undoubted  patriotism  and  prudence,  as 
rash  and  unnecessarily  harsh.  "It  was  ungra- 
cious," they  said,  "  and  wanting  in  filial  respect 
and  in  dignity,  thus  hastily  to  take  the  extreme 
position  of  armed  resistance  to  the  mother  coun- 
try. It  would  put  their  friends  in  England  to  the 
blush,  and  unite  the  whole  nation  against  them. 
Besides,  the  colonies  had  no  means  to  resist  the 
mighty  power  of  England  ;  —  no  armies,  no  navy, 
no  military  stores,  no  money,  no  skilful  generals. 
Moreover,  the  king  and  Parliament  were  begin- 
ning to  view  matters  more  kindly,  and  a  day  of 
reconciliation  was  at  hand,  which  such  rash  coun- 
sels might  long  defer  or  render  impossible." 

In  these  arguments  there  was  great  weight. 
The  colonists  were  bound  by  strong  ties  to  the 
mother  country ;  and  they  were  extremely  reluc- 
tant to  cut  loose  from  home,  even  if  it  could  be 
done  without  hazard.  But  Mr.  Henry  saw,  or 
thought  he  saw,  that  it  was  impossible  longer  to 
remain  happily  united  to  England.  He  thought 
that  favorable  appearances  were  delusive,  and 
that  the  time  for  decisive  action  had  come.  It 
was  then,  with  the  mass  of  talent  in  the  house 
against  him,  opposed  too  by  men  in  whose  patriot- 
ism and  honesty  he  had  entire  confidence,  that  lie 
made  that  earnest  speech,  which  can  never  be 
forgotten  in  the  annals  of  American  eloquence, 
and  which  is  more  or  less  familiar  to  half  the 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


309 


school-boys  in  the  United  States.  The  whole 
burden  of  it  seemed  to  be  concentrated  in  the  sol- 
emn sentence  in  which,  with  calm  dignity  and  in- 
expressible force,  he  expressed  his  deep  convic- 
tions—  "  We  must  fght!  I  repeat  it,  Sir,  we 
must  fight  ! !  An  appeal  to  arms  and  to  the 
God  of  Hosts  is  all  that  is  left  to  us"  His  words 
were  prophetic.  "  The  war,"  he  said,  "  is  actually 
begun.  The  next  gale  that  sweeps  from  the 
north,  will  bring  to  our  ears  the  clash  of  resound- 
ing arms.  Our  brethren  are  already  in  the  field. 
Why  stand  we  here  idle  ?  *  *  *  I  know  not 
what  course  others  may  take  ;  but  as  for  me,"  — 
and  here  he  extended  his  arms  aloft,  with  his 
brows  knit,  every  feature  marked  with  the  reso- 
lute purpose  of  his  soul,  and  his  voice  swelled  to 
its  boldest  note  of  exclamation,  —  "  give  me  lib- 
erty, or  give  me  death !  " 

The  effect  was  electric.  "  No  murmur  of  ap- 
plause was  heard.  After  the  trance  of  a  moment, 
several  members  started  from  their  seats.  The 
cry  'to  arms!'  seemed  to  quiver  on  every  lip  and 
gleam  from  every  eye."  Opposition  to  the  res- 
olutions was  entirely  overcome,  they  were  adopted, 
and  a  committee  appointed,  among  whom  we  find 
the  distinguished  names  of  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Richard  Henry  Lee,  and  others.  It  is  worthy  to 
be  remarked,  that,  with  generous  confidence,  many 
were  put  upon  this  committee  who  had  strongly 
opposed  the  resolution,  as  if  to  show  that  their 
hearts  were  one,  although  their  heads  might  differ 
somewhat  as  to  the  precise  measures  which  the 
crisis  demanded.  In  less  than  a  month  from  this 
time,  was  fought  the  battle  of  Lexington  (April 
18,  1775),  caused,  as  will  be  recollected,  by  an 


310 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


attempt  of  the  British  troops  to  seize  some  mil- 
itary stores  at  Concord.  Only  two  days  after 
tins  battle  (April  20),  the  captain  of  an  armed 
schooner,  lying  in  James  river,  by  orders  of  Lord 
Dunmore,  the  governor  of  Virginia,  came  to  Wil- 
liamsburg, the  capital,  of  the  State,  by  night,  and 
carried  away  the  powder  from  the  public  mag- 
azine. The  muskets  in  the  magazine  were  also 
deprived  of  their  locks.  This  was  an  indication 
of  an  attempt  to  disarm  the  State.  The  people 
were  alarmed,  and  wrere  only  pacified  by  the 
strong  efforts  of  their  public  mon,  added  to  the 
solemn  promise  of  the  governor,  that  the  powder 
should  be  returned  whenever  wanted  on  account 
of  any  insurrection  among  the  negroes,  which,  it 
seems,  was  somewhat  feared.  In  the  mean  time, 
came  the  news  of  the  battles  of  Lexington  and 
Concord,  which  did  not  tend  to  allay  the  excite- 
ment in  the  country.  A  body  of  seven  hundred 
men  were  with  difficulty  dissuaded  from  marching 
upon  Williamsburg.  Mr.  Henry  was,  however, 
too  much  excited  to  allow  matters  to  go  on  without 
some  more  earnest  demonstration  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  action  of  the  governor  was  regarded. 
Having  assembled  an  independent  company,  of 
which  he  was  chosen  captain,  he  succeeded,  by 
vigorous  measures,  in  obtaining  from  the  king's 
receiver-general  a  bill  of  exchange  for  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  pounds,  which  was  the  reputed 
value  of  the  powder  taken  from  the  public  stores. 
The  company  then  dispersed,  and  returned  to 
their  homes. 

It  was  not  long  after,  that  Lord  Dunmore  left 
the  capital,  and  took  refuge  on  board  the  Fowey 
man-of-war,  lying  in  the  river,  and,  in  the  course 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


311 


of  a  little  while,  commenced  a  series  of  unprovoked 
attacks  on  the  defenceless  and  exposed  parts  of 
the  country.  No  other  permanent  effect  was  pro- 
duced by  this  cruelty,  than  to  add  greatly  to  the 
popular  exasperation.  We  cannot  enter  into  a 
detail  of  the  military  operations  of  the  colony. 
Mr.  Henry  was  elected  colonel  of  the  first  reg- 
iment of  troops,  and  commander-in-chief  of  all  the 
forces  raised  and  to  be  raised  for  the  defence  of 
the  colony.  In  his  military  command,  he  was, 
however,  subjected  to  many  peculiar  trials,  which 
resulted  at  last  in  his  throwing  up  his  commis- 
sion. 

By  the  departure  of  Lord  Dunmore,  and  the 
proceedings  consequent  upon  it,  the  colony  was 
left  without  public  officers.  In  order  to  provide 
for  this  emergency,  a  convention  of  delegates 
from  the  State  proceeded  to  draw  up  the  neces- 
sary plans  for  a  new  government.  On  the  loth  of 
May,  1776,  the  convention,  by  a  unanimous  resolu- 
tion, instructed  the  delegates  to  the  general  con- 
gress, to  propose  to  that  body  to  declare  the  United 
Colonies  free  and  independent  States  ;  and  also  to 
assent  to  measures  which  might  be  necessary  for 
forming  a  confederation  of  the  States,  and  foreign 
alliances.  This  resolution  proceeded  from  the  same 
hand  which  subsequently  contributed  so  much  to 
the  declaration  of  independence.  During  the  next 
month  the  constitution  of  Virginia  was  adopted, 
and  Patrick  Henry  had  the  honor  of  being  elected 
the  first  republican  Governor. 

This  was  not  only  very  gratifying  to  himself, 
but  was  regarded  with  high  favor  in  the  State 
generally.  He  was  reelected  in  1777  and  1778, 
to  the  same  office ;   and  only  declined  a  re- 

S3  * 


312 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


election  in  1779,  from  a  belief  that  the  consti- 
tution did  not  allow  him  to  serve  four  years  in 
succession.  During  these  years,  some  of  the  most 
trying  of  the  war,  although  he  was  confined  to  the 
duties  of  a  single  post,  his  influence  was  strongly 
used  for  the  country.  In  the  second  year  of  his 
office,  the  disgraceful  plot  to  supplant  General 
Washington  came  to  its  crisis.  It  arose  from  the 
selfish  dissatisfaction  of  certain  officers  in  the 
army ;  and  the  object  was  to  deprive  Washington 
of  his  station  as  commander-in-chief,  and  confer 
the  power  upon  General  Gates.  Mr.  Henry  re- 
ceived an  anonymous  letter,  couched  in  artful  and 
flattering  language,  full  of  insinuations  and  open 
charges  against  Washington,  and  soliciting  the 
concurrence  of  the  Governor  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  Henry  did  not  hesitate  a  moment,  but,  ig- 
norant as  he  was  of  the  author,  enclosed  it  in  a 
letter  of  great  frankness,  and  sent  it  to  General 
Washington,  then  at  Valley  Forge.  The  Gen- 
eral replied  with  much  cordiality.  The  results 
of  the  cabal,  and  how  it  recoiled  upon  the  heads 
of  those  who  encouraged  it,  while  the  honor  of 
Washington  shone  brighter  than  ever,  are  matters 
of  history. 

After  resigning  his  post  as  Governor,  Mr. 
Henry  was  returned  as  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture, and  continued  for  several  years  to  represent 
the  county  of  his  residence.  One  of  his  most 
powerful  efforts,  during  this  time,  was  his  advo- 
cacy, at  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war,  of 
the  return  of  the  British  refugees,  against  whom 
there  was  a  vehement  prejudice.  Mr.  Henry 
argued  in  favor  of  it,  as  a  matter  of  humanity, 
of  justice,  and  of  policy.    No  one  in  the  house 


PATRICK  HKNRT. 


313 


had  such  indubitable  control  of  the  feelings  of 
the  members  as  himself.  He  was  acquainted 
with  the  local  prejudices  of  different  sections  of 
the  State,  and  could  appeal  to  them  with  great 
effect.  This  power,  although  capable  of  being 
perverted  to  unworthy  ends,  Mr.  Henry  used  when 
the  question  really  affected  local  affairs,  and  when 
his  convictions  were  very  strong  of  the  utility  of  the 
measures  advocated.  We  will  give  an  instance 
furnished  by  one  who  heard  the  debate.  The 
finances  of  the  State  having  become  much  de- 
ranged during  the  war,  it  was  thought  best  by  a 
large  party  in  the  legislature,  among  whom  were 
Mr.  Tyler  (then  Speaker),  Mr.  Tazewell,  Mr. 
Page,  and  other  distinguished  men.  to  endeavor  to 
restore  the  State  credit  by  laying  taxes  equal  to 
the  emergency.  Mr.  Henry,  on  the  contrary, 
thought  it  better  policy  to  wait  a  while,  and  so 
allow  the  people  a  little  time  for  recovering  from 
the  prostrating  effects  of  the  war.  In  the  com- 
mittee of  the  whole  house  the  bill  had  been  car- 
ried, and  was  then  reported  to  the  House.  Mr. 
Henry,  smarting  under  the  defeat,  then  brought 
all  his  power  to  bear  against  it.  "  The  feelings 
of  Mr.  Tyler,  which  were  sometimes  warm,  could 
not  on  that  occasion  be  concealed  even  in  the 
chair.  His  countenance  was  forbidding,  even  re- 
pulsive, and  his  face  turned  from  the  speaker. 
Mr.  Tazewell  was  reading  a  pamphlet ;  and  Mr. 
Page  was  more  than  usually  grave.  After  some 
time,  however,  it  was  discovered  that  Mr.  Tyler's 
countenance  gradually  began  to  relax  ;  he  would 
occasionally  look  at  Mr.  Henry  ;  sometimes  smile ; 
his  attention  by  degrees  became  more  fixed ;  at 
length  it  became  completely  so :  he  next  appeared 
vol.  ir.  '27 


81  I 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


to  be  in  good  humor ;  he  leaned  toward  Mr. 
Henry ;  appeared  charmed  and  delighted,  and 
finally  lost  in  wonder  and  amazement.  The  pro- 
gress of  these  feelings  was  legible  in  his  counte- 
nance." 

"  Mr.  Henry  drew  a  most  affecting  picture  of 
the  state  of  poverty  and  suffering  in  which  the 
people  of  the  upper  counties  had  been  left  by  the 
war.  His  delineation  of  their  wants  and  wretch- 
edness was  so  minute,  so  full  of  feeling,  and  withal 
so  true,  that  he  could  scarcely  fail  to  enlist  on  his 
side  every  sympathetic  mind.  He  contrasted  the 
severe  toil  by  which  they  had  to  gain  their  daily 
subsistence,  with  the  facilities  enjoyed  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  lower  counties.  The  latter,  he  said, 
residing  on  the  salt  rivers  and  creeks,  could  draw 
their  supplies  at  pleasure  from  the  waters  that 
flowed  by  their  doors;  and  then  he  presented 
such  a  ludicrous  image  of  the  members  who  had 
advocated  the  bill  (the  most  of  whom  were  from 
the  lower  counties),  peeping  and  peering  along 
the  shores  of  the  creeks,  to  pick  up  their  mess  of 
crabs,  or  paddling  off  to  the  oyster  rocks  to  rake 
for  their  daily  bread,  as  filled  the  house  with  a 
roar  of  merriment.  Mr.  Tazewell  laid  down  his 
pamphlet,  and  shook  his  sides  with  laughter ;  even 
the  gravity  of  Mr.  Page  was  affected ;  a  corres- 
ponding change  of  countenance  prevailed  through 
the  ranks  of  the  advocates  of  the  bill,  and  you 
might  discover  that  they  had  surrendered  their 
cause.  In  this  they  were  not  disappointed  ;  for 
on  a  division,  Mr.  Henry  had  a  majority  of  up- 
wards of  thirty  against  the  bill." 

In  1784,  Mr.  Henry  was  again  elected  governor 
of  Virginia.    According  to  the  constitution,  he 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


315 


could  be  reelected  for  three  successive  years  ;  but, 
finding  that  the  salary  was  not  sufficient  for  his 
support,  he,  in  1786,  declined  to  continue  in  the 
office.  He  was,  however,  the  same  year  ap- 
pointed, with  Washington,  Madison,  Edmund 
Randolph,  John  Blair,  George  Mason,  and  George 
Wythe,  to  attend  the  convention  about  to  meet  at 
Philadelphia,  for  the  purpose  of  revising  the  fed- 
eral constitution.  This  honor,  however,  he  de- 
clined for  the  same  reason,  and  returned  again  to 
the  bar  for  the  sake  of  recovering  his  fortune. 

The  task  which  the  framers  of  the  present  fed- 
eral constitution  had  to  perform,  was  one  of  ex- 
treme delicacy  and  importance.  On  their  success 
depended  the  hopes  of  the  United  States.  The 
efforts  of  foreign  enemies  had  been  overcome,  and 
now  remained  to  be  achieved  the  greater  victory 
of  peace,  the  establishing  of  a  government  equal 
to  the  control  of  so  vast  a  country,  whose  internal 
arrangements  were  complicated,  whose  finances 
were  in  a  ruinous  condition,  and  whose  resources 
were  almost  entirely  undeveloped.  In  September, 
1787,  after  a  discussion  of  about  four  months,  the 
constitution  was  adopted,  with  a  proviso  that  the 
ratification  of  it  by  nine  States  should  be  sufficient 
for  its  final  establishment.  In  all  the  States  it 
was  debated  with  great  vehemence,  but  was  finally 
adopted  by  all.  Six  ratified  it  absolutely;  and 
seven,  with  the  recommendation  of  certain 
amendments.  In  July,  1788,  ten  States  having 
acceded,  it  was  ratified  by  Congress,  and  in  Feb- 
uary,  1789,  George  Washington  was  chosen  the 
first  President. 

The  Virginia  Convention  for  considering  the 
subject  met  in  Richmond,  June  2,  1788,  and  ex- 


316 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


hibited  a  remarkable  array  of  talent.  Few  States 
could  have  collected  together  such  men  as  Mar- 
shall, Madison,  Munroe,  and  Henry.  Mr.  Henry 
regarded  the  constitution  with  great  fear,  and  op- 
posed it  with  all  his  might.  And  never  did  his 
great  talents  shine  more  conspicuously  than  when, 
for  day  after  day,  and  week  after  week,  he  com- 
batted  the  powerful  arguments  of  his  great  antag- 
onists. His  opposition,  however,  was  not  factious, 
but  the  result  of  earnest,  although  as  experience 
has  proved,  groundless  fears.  Towards  the  close 
of  the  protracted  debate,  with  the  courtesy  which 
always  marked  his  public  efforts,  "  he  begged 
pardon  of  the  House  for  having  taken  up  more 
time  than  came  to  his  share,  and  thanked  them 
for  the  patience  and  polite  attention  with  which 
he  had  been  heard  ;"  and  then  added,  as  if  feeling 
a  presentiment  of  defeat,  "If  I  shall  be  in  the 
minority,  I  shall  have  those  painful  sensations 
which  arise  from  a  conviction  of  being  overpow- 
ered in  a  good  cause.  Yet  I  will  be  a  peaceable 
citizen  !  My  head,  my  hand,  and  my  heart,  shall 
be  free  to  retrieve  the  loss  of  liberty,  and  remove 
the  defects  of  that  system,  in  a  constitutional  way. 
I  wish  not  to  go  to  violence,  but  will  wait  with 
hopes  that  the  spirit  which  predominated  in  the 
revolution  is  not  yet  gone  ;  nor  the  cause  of  those 
who  are  attached  to  the  revolution,  yet  lost." 
This  was  the  spirit  of  a  true  patriot ;  how  heaven- 
wide  from  that  which,  to  gain  its  own  ends  or  the 
ends  of  its  party,  would  willingly  see  the  vast 
fabric  of  the  government  laid  in  ruins.  Fortu- 
nately the  efforts  of  Mr.  Henry  were  unsuccess- 
ful ;  the  constitution  was  adopted,  and  he  himself 
lived  to  regard  it  with  much  less  fear  than  at  first. 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


317 


Certainly  he  kept  his  pledge  of  obedience  to  it, 
and  found  occasion,  too,  to  lend  his  powerful  influ- 
ence to  the  government. 

In  the  spring  of  1791,  Mr.  Henry  declined  a 
reelection  to  the  Virginia  legislature,  and,  though 
afterwards  invited,  never  entered  into  public  life 
again.  In  the  fall  of  this  year  he  was  engaged  in 
one  of  his  most  important  legal  cases  before  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States.  It  was  the 
celebrated  case  of  the  British  debts ;  one  of  very 
considerable  importance  as  affecting  the  rights  of 
British  claimants  who  held  debts  against  Ameri- 
can citizens,  contracted  before  the  war.  This 
question  had  been  gravely  agitated  in  several  of 
the  States.  We  have  not  space  to  go  into  a  de- 
scription of  the  cause,  nor  would  it  perhaps  be 
proper  so  to  do.  Mr.  Henry,  in  company  with 
Mr.  (afterwards  Chief  Justice)  Marshall,  Mr. 
Campbell,  and  Mr.  Innis,  the  attorney-general  of 
Virginia,  was  engaged  for  the  defendant,  a  native 
of  the  State.  Mr.  Henry's  plea  was  highly  elab- 
orated, and  displayed  a  strength  of  legal  argument 
and  an  extent  of  knowledge  which  surprised  those 
even  who  knew  him  best.  A  singular  proof  of 
the  great  interest  felt  by  every  body  in  his  elo- 
quence, is  found  in  the  fact  that,  although  the 
house  of  delegates  was  at  that  time  in  session,  it 
was  impossible  to  collect  a  quorum  for  business. 
For  three  days,  during  which  he  was  proceeding 
with  his  argument,  the  assembly-room  was  de- 
serted, and  the  court-room  crowded.  "  When  he 
finally  sat  down,"  says  his  biographer,  "  the  con- 
course rose  with  a  general  murmur  of  admiration  ; 
the  scene  resembled  the  breaking  up  and  disper- 
sion of  a  great  theatrical  assembly,  which  had 

JUPfTTTT.  


318 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


been  enjoying,  for  the  first  time,  the  exhibition  of 
some  new  and  splendid  drama:  the  speaker  of 
the  house  of  delegates  was  at  length  able  to  com- 
mand a  quorum  for  business ;  and  every  quarter 
of  the  city,  and  at  length  every  part  of  the  State, 
was  filled  with  the  echoes  of  Mr.  Henry's  eloquent 
speech." 

His  success  at  the  bar  did  not  desert  him  ;  and, 
whenever  he  appeared,  crowds  followed  to  listen 
and  wonder,  or  rather  to  forget  every  thing  in  the 
strong  feelings  which  he  was  sure  to  excite.  The 
speeches  by  which  his  most  powerful  effects  were 
produced,  are  entirely  lost  to  us.  Of  many  of 
them  no  report  was  ever  attempted ;  of  others,  an 
unsatisfactory  outline  is  all  that  has  been  pre- 
served. In  place  of  the  speeches,  we  only  have 
descriptions  of  the  feelings  they  produced  on  cer- 
tain hearers.  On  one  occasion,  says  Mr.  Wirt, 
"  he  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  house  of  delegates, 
in  support  of  a  petition  of  the  officers  of  the  Vir- 
ginia line,  who  sought  to  be  placed  on  the  footing 
of  those  who  had  been  taken  on  continental  estab- 
lishment ;  and  after  having  depicted  their  services 
and  their  sufferings,  in  colors  which  filled  every 
heart  with  sympathy  and  gratitude,  he  dropped 
on  ^his  knees,  at  the  bar  of  the  house,  and  pre- 
sented such  an  appeal  as  might  almost  have  soft- 
ened rocks,  and  bent  the  knotted  oak.  Yet  no 
vestige  of  this  splendid  speech  remains ;  nor  have 
I  been  able,  after  the  most  diligent  inquiries,  to 
ascertain  the  year  in  which  it  occurred  ;  similar 
petitions  having  been  presented,  for  several  suc- 
cessive sessions." 

In  1794,  Mr.  Henry,  having  become  free  from 
debt,  and  having  acquired  a  sufficient  fortune, 


PATRICK  HENRY.  SJ  9 


finally  retired  from  professional  life.  The  com- 
mendations of  his  best  biographer,  Mr.  Wirt,  seem 
to  be  fully  deserved.  "  He  retired,  loaded  with 
honors,  public  and  professional ;  and  carried  with 
him  the  admiration,  the  gratitude,  the  confidence, 
and  the  love  of  his  country.  No  man  ever  passed 
through  so  long  a  life  of  public  service,  with  a  rep- 
utation more  perfectly  unspotted.  Nor  had  Mr. 
Henry,  on  any  occasion,  sought  security  from  cen- 
sure, by  that  kind  of  temporising  neutrality  which 
politicians  so  frequently  observe.  On  the  contra- 
ry, his  course  had  been  uniformly  active,  bold, 
intrepid,  and  independent.  *  *  *  For  more 
than  thirty  years  he  had  now  stood  before  his 
country,  open  to  the  scrutiny  and  the  censure 
of  the  invidious ;  yet  he  retired,  not  only  without 
spot  or  blemish,  but  with  all  his  laurels  blooming 
full  and  fresh  upon  him  ;  followed  by  the  bles- 
sings of  his  almost  adoring  countrymen,  and 
cheered  by  that  most  exquisite  of  all  earthly 
possessions  —  the  consciousness  of  having,  in  deed 
and  in  truth,  played  well  his  part.'" 

In  the  bosom  of  his  own  family,  he  now  pre- 
pared to  pass  the  serene  evening  of  his  days. 
Nothing  could  be  more  delightful  than  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  social  enjoyments  of  his  fireside. 
Dignified  but  simple,  wise  in  the  experience  of  a 
varied  life,  and  ready  to  communicate  what  he 
knew,  many  were  the  visiters  who  came  to  enjoy 
the  pleasure  of  his  society,  and  none  came  without 
a  welcome.  In  his  own  family  he  was  full  of 
affection  and  tenderness,  the  life  and  happiness 
of  the  circle.  "  His  visitors  have  not  unfrequent- 
ly  caught  him  lying  on  the  floor,  with  a  group  of 
his  little  children  climbing  over  him  in  every  di- 


320 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


rection,  or  dancing  around  him,  with  obstreperous 
mirth,  to  the  tune  of  his  violin,  while  the  only 
contest  seemed  to  be  who  should  make  the  most 
noise."  Of  this  anecdote,  furnished  by  a  corres- 
pondent of  his  biographer,  Mr.  Wirt  remarks  : 
**  If  there  be  any  bachelor  so  cold  of  heart  as  to 
be  offended  at  this,  I  can  only  remind  him  of  the 
remark  of  the  great  Agesilaus  to  the  friend  who 
found  him  riding  on  a  stick  among  his  children, 
' Don't  mention  it  till  you  are  yourself  a  father' " 

After  Mr.  Henry's  retirement  from  public  life, 
party  politics  ran  very  high.  Those  who  defended 
the  government,  and  those  who  opposed  it  were 
considered  by  each  other  as  carrying  their  opin- 
ions and  measures  to  an  unwarrantable  extreme. 
Mr.  Henry,  although  opposed,  as  we  have  said,  to 
the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  came  to  feel  that 
Washington,  for  whom  he  had  great  affection, 
was  unkindly,  or  even,  as  he  said,  u  abusively 
treated ; "  and  though  he  professed  not  to  have 
changed  his  opinions,  his  sympathies  had  evi- 
dently gone  with  the  defenders  of  the  govern- 
ment. His  opinions  at  this  period  of  his  life  are 
well  worthy  of  careful  study. 

In  1796,  he  was  again  chosen  Governor  of  the 
State,  but  declined  the  appointment.  The  Em- 
bassy to  Spain  and  that  to  France  were  offered 
to  him  by  the  general  government,  but  declined 
on  account  of  his  age,  and  the  circumstances  of 
his  family. 

In  1799,  although  his  health  had  been  for  a 
year  or  two  declining,  he  felt  called  upon  to  offer 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  on  ac- 
count of  the  strong  opposition  which  had  man- 
ifested itself  in  the  State  to  the  alien  and  sedition 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


321 


laws.  One  of  the  most  affecting  incidents  of  his 
life  occurred  on  the  day  of  election.  As  he  was 
walking  among  the  crowd,  receiving  the  homage 
which  they  were  so  ready  to  bestow,  a  Baptist 
preacher  "asked  the  people  aloud,  'Why  they 
thus  followed  Mr.  Henry  about?  Mr.  Henry,' 
said  he,  'is  not  a  god.'  'No,'  said  Mr.  Henry, 
deeply  affected  both  by  the  scene  and  the  remark, 
'no,  indeed,  my  friend,  I  am  but  a  poor  worm  of 
the  dust  —  as  fleeting  and  unsubstantial  as  the 
shadow  of  the  cloud  that  flies  over  your  fields, 
and  is  remembered  no  more.'  The  tone  with 
which  this  was  uttered,  and  the  look  which  accom- 
panied it,  affected  every  heart,  and  silenced  every 
voice.  Envy  and  opposition  were  disarmed  by 
his  humility  ;  the  recollection  of  his  past  services 
rushed  upon  every  memory,  and  he  read  his  his- 
tory in  their  swimming  eyes."  His  address  to 
the  people,  on  this  occasion,  was  the  closing  effort 
of  his  eloquence.  It  was  an  earnest  entreaty  that 
they  should  not  spend  their  strength  in  contending 
against  each  other,  but  preserve  it  for  whatever 
foreign  foe  might  seek  to  prostrate  the  country. 

He  was  elected  by  a  large  majority,  but  did 
not  live  to  take  his  seat  in  the  assembly.  On  the 
6th  day  of  June,  1799,  he  passed  beyond  the  per- 
plexities and  responsibilities  of  this  life,  and  en- 
tered on  the  great  theatre  of  the  future  world. 
His  fame,  obscured  a  little  during  the  latter  part 
of  his  life  by  the  clouds  of  party  feeling,  will  shine 
brighter  and  brighter  for  many  a  year.  As  an 
orator,  none  of  his  time  stood  so  high  as  he ;  and 
although  posterity  must  rely  mainly  upon  testi- 
mony, they  will  not  be  likely  to  reverse  the  unan- 
imous decision  of  his  contemporaries. 


322 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


Mr.  Henry  had  a  high  regard  for  religion,  al- 
though, to  our  regret,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
made  a  public  profession  of  his  religious  faith.  In 
a  letter  to  one  of  his  daughters,  he  says :  "  The 
view  which  the  rising  greatness  of  my  country 
presents  to  my  eyes,  is  greatly  tarnished  by  the 
general  prevalence  of  deism ;  which,  with  me,  is 
but  another  name  for  vice  and  depravity.  I  am, 
however,  much  consoled  by  reflecting,  that  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ  has,  from  its  first  appearance  in  the 
world,  been  attacked  in  vain  by  all  the  wits,  phil- 
osophers, and  wise  ones,  aided  by  every  power  of 
man,  and  its  triumph  has  been  complete.  What 
is  there  in  the  wit,  or  wisdom  of  the  present  de- 
istical  writers  or  professors,  that  can  compare 
them  with  Hume,  Shaftsbury,  Bolingbroke,  and 
others  ?  And  yet  these  have  been  confuted,  and 
their  fame  is  decaying ;  in  so  much  that  the  puny 
efforts  of  Paine  are  thrown  in  to  prop  their  totter- 
ing fabric,  whose  foundations  cannot  stand  the 
test  of  time.  Amongst  other  strange  things  said 
of  me,  I  hear  it  is  said  by  1he  deists,  that  I  am 
one  of  the  number ;  and,  indeed,  that  some  good 
people  think  I  am  no  Christian.  This  thought 
gives  me  much  more  pain  than  the  appellation  of 
tory,  because  I  think  religion  of  infinitely  higher 
importance  than  politics ;  and  I  find  much  cause 
to  reproach  myself,  that  I  have  lived  so  long,  and 
have  given  no  public  and  decided  proofs  of  my 
being  a  Christian.  But,  indeed,  my  dear  child, 
this  is  a  character  which  I  prize  far  above  all  this 
world  has  or  can  boast."  "  Here  is  a  book,"  said 
he,  to  a  friend  who  found  him  reading  the  Bible, 
not  a  great  while  before  his  death,  "  worth  more 
than  all  the  other  books  that  were  ever  printed ; 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


823 


yet  it  is  my  misfortune  never  to  have  found  time 
to  read  it  with  the  proper  attention  and  feeling, 
till  lately.  I  trust  in  the  mercy  of  heaven  that  it 
is  not  yet  too  late."  Doddridge's  "  Rise  and  Pro- 
gress of  Religion  in  the  Soul,"  Butler's  "Anal- 
ogy of  Religion,  Natural  and  Revealed,"  and 
Soame  Jenyns's  "View  of  the  Internal  Evidences 
of  the  Christian  Religion,"  were  among  the  serious 
books  to  which  he  was  very  partial.  He  was  so 
much  pleased  with  the  last-named  work,  that  he 
had  an  edition  printed  at  his  own  expense,  and 
distributed  among  the  people. 

Mr.  Henry  has  been  charged  with  too  great  a 
love  for  money,  and  an  extravagant  desire  for 
fame.  How  far  either  of  these  defects  actually 
existed,  we  have  no  means  of  fully  determining. 
Certainly  his  love  of  money  did  not  prevent  him, 
in  a  course  of  public  life,  from  being,  at  the  age 
of  fifty  years  —  an  age  at  which  most  men  have 
made  a  fortune  if  they  ever  make  it  —  embar- 
rassed with  debt,  and  obliged  to  decline  honorable 
offices,  and  betake  himself  to  a  laborious  pro- 
fession, in  order  to  support  his  family.  Neither 
did  his  love  of  fame  keep  him  from  rendering  the 
most  ample  honor  to  the  great  men  of  the  country, 
or  affording  a  very  generous  assistance  to  the 
young  who  were  working  their  way  to  an  honor- 
able position  in  life. 

It  is  justly  charged  upon  him  that  he  was  defi- 
cient in  the  knowledge  to  be  derived  from  books, 
as  he  always  shrunk  from  the  toil  necessary  to 
acquire  it.  His  library  was  small,  and  quite  un- 
worthy of  a  man  in  his  station.  But  his  knowl- 
edge of  men  was  vast.  "  Take  my  word  for  it," 
said  he,  to  a  noted  book-worm  whom  he  met  in  a 


5k  * 


£%2, 

324  PATRICK  HENRY. 

book  store,  "  we  are  too  old  to  read  books  ;  read 
men  ;  they  are  the  only  volume  that  we  can  peruse 
to  advantage."  His  discernment  of  character  was 
rapid  and  just,  and  led  him  to  form  opinions  of 
others  which  time  was  almost  sure  to  justify.  His 
political  sagacity  was  also  very  great.  He  had 
strong  common  sense,  and  this  was  the  basis  of 
his  power  in  all  that  he  did.  It  saved  him  from 
mistakes,  and  kept  him,  in  the  full  fervor  of  his 
eloquence,  from  "  overstepping  the  modesty  of 
nature,"  and  giving  way  to  the  mere  impulse  of 
feeling.  His  person  was  commanding,  and  his 
power  of  expression,  by  means  of  gesture  and  the 
various  motions  of  his  countenance,  gave  great 
force  to  his  eloquence.  For  a  full  description  of 
this  power,  the  reader  is  referred  to  his  biography 
by  a  kindred  and  beautiful  spirit,  Mr.  Wirt,  from 
which  a  great  part  of  this  sketch  has  been  derived. 
As  an  orator,  a  statesman,  a  patriot,  the  name  of 
Patrick  Henry  will  never  be  forgotten  in  the 
annals  of  his  country. 


IS 


